Call it, Lincoln-Douglas version 2.008. Will Obama accept it? Of course not. But after all, that’s the Clinton campaign’s entire purpose for suggesting it in the first place. Once Obama declines, they will have yet another piece of evidence to add to their “Obama’s a wimp” narrative. If, by chance, Obama does accept, the debate could very well be the political equivalent of Thunderdome. The awesomeness of this primary never ceases to amaze me:
Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama to another debate today, and this time she says they should ditch the moderators. “Here’s my proposal,” Clinton said. “I’m offering Senator Obama a chance to debate me one-on-one, no moderators. Just the two of us.”
Ever since Obama took repeated hits at an ABC News debate in Pennsylvania over a week ago, his campaign has been claiming that the moderators unfairly targeted him, possibly costing him votes there. “You know, after the last debate in Philadelphia, Senator Obama’s supporters complained a little bit about the tough question,” Clinton said. “Tough questions in a debate are nothing compared to the tough questions you get asked when you are president.”
Over the last few days, Clinton has challenged Obama to debates in North Carolina, Indiana and Oregon. She said she would like to see an Abraham Lincoln-Frederick Douglas style debate, where the two traveled around Illinois debating one-on-one.
Clinton said the people of Indiana deserve a debate because they have been “wandering in the wilderness of American politics for 40 years,” referring to the last time Indiana had a say in picking a presidential nominee.
April 26th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
That woman has balls of steel.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I believe Hillary is a power-crazed rutless woman, but I also think she would be a truly worthy opponent in the Fall Election
April 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
She’s got guts. But also, what has she got to lose at this point.
It’s Stephen Douglas, by the way.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
It occurs to me that this year is the 150th anniversary of the debates. That ought to be receiving some attention.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Obama is afraid to debate her because in debates he has to talk about issues, and he would rather just talk about “hope”. As to your comments in one of the other posts, I don’t need a lecture from you about how liberals and conservatives can still be friends. I have friends on both sides also. However, when you’re running for President, who you associate with gives a clue as to what your views are. The fact that McCain associates with people like Warner and Rudman says just as much about him as who Obama associates with, though Obama’s friends are obviously worse. Warren Rudman is not a racist minister or a terrorist. I know you say McCain is also friends with Trent Lott, but I recall him criticizing Trent Lott over the Strom Thurmond thing back in 2002. Lott is just sucking up to him now. Lott endorsed him early last year when he was the frontrunner because Lott wanted to be with the winner.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I’ve decided from now on I’m going to express my negative feelings about McCain as well as my positive ones, and they are mixed. It isn’t right that certain people on this site think it’s alright to attack a Democrat, but you can’t attack another Republican, especially the nominee. That is the type of bitter partisanship the American people are fed up with.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Hillary is desperate and Barack is pompous. The only reason these two awful candidates are viable is because Bush has screwed things up so badly.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Ooohhh…she’s calling you out barack…wwf/boxing/mma style.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
After Barack refuses, Hillary will hit him over the head with this:
Barack pledges to sit down and talk with Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he won’t talk with Hillary.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Update, Barack refused.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Obama_rules_out_Indiana_North_Carolina_debate.html
Ah well, I’m much more comfortable with a President Barack Obama meeting with foreign dictators.
April 27th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Win, lose, or draw, I have to say this — “You go, girl!”
I would dearly love to see a real, honest-to-goodness debate without the showboating moderators. But, it will never happen.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Hillary has guts, and she is smart. She would demolish him, and he knows it. He can’t talk policy, he doesn’t know policy. He can’t talk issues, he doesn’t know issues.
What he does know, is that he has to say no, even if it appears that he is afraid.