Just six more weeks and four Presidential debates to go
There are just six more weeks of campaigning until America will go to the polls on November 4 and elect the next President and Vice-President to four-year terms. In between are also four highly anticipated debates, three between the two Presidential candidates and one between the two Vice-Presidential candidates.
- The first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama will take place this coming Friday at 9:00 p.m. ET at the University of Mississippi with Jim Lehrer (from PBS) as moderator. The topics will be Foreign Policy and National Security. The debate will last for 90 minutes as will all the others and will be aired by all major broadcast networks and cable news channels.
- This will be followed on October 2 by the Vice-Presidential candidate debate between Joe Biden (D) and Sarah Palin ® and will be held at Washington University in St. Louis. The moderator will be Gwen Ifill (also from PBS) with specifics about the debate topics and its format as yet to be determined.
- The second Presidential candidate debate is scheduled for October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee where the moderator is Tom Brokaw (NBC) and it is planned as a Town Hall debate where questions will be solicited from audience members and e-mails.
- The third and final Presidential debate is scheduled for October 15 at Hofstra University, located in Hempstead, Long Island with moderator Bob Schieffer from CBS. This one is similar to the first debate in that it will focus on Domestic and Economic Policies. This debate will allow for 90 second long closing statements by each candidate.
In between and in addition to these four scheduled events, we will see the candidates campaigning across the country and we will be subjected to television and radio ads by both campaigns on a daily basis. Beyond that, we will get daily updates from so called ‘daily tracking polls’ nationally and on a State by State basis, not to mention the daily updates on the electoral college counts. All these things will be accompanied by daily newspaper and magazine articles and opinion pieces as well as commented on by the hordes of pundits on our television screens.
To follow it all very closely, one has to be truly dedicated with no obstructions by other things such as having to work for a living or pursuing hobbies like golf etc. Additionally, no other events can happen in our lives and the only time-off allowed is a few hours for sleep every day and short meals eaten at home, if possible, in front of a television set. Anybody with a home computer has to be a ‘multi-tasker’ in that surfing the internet has to be coupled with simultaneously listening to the radio or watching television or calling close friends to discuss the latest events on the Presidential campaign trails.
Is this crazy or what? Common Sense Politics believes it is in that it does not allow for anybody to think, analyze or evaluate what is being served up as news every hour of every day. Who can in all honesty follow the daily statements by the candidates, especially when they not only can talk out of both sides of their mouths yet even change their positions frequently? These will surely be news-filled six weeks leading up to Election Day and nobody really knows what all will happen during these weeks. In the end, it will all come down to who has won 270 Electoral College votes. It is our hope that we will not have to suffer through another contested election with endless recounts in various States. It would be nice if the winning team gets well over 300 Electoral College votes and then allow them to govern from a position of strength in terms of a clear mandate. Yet the self-anointed ‘experts in political punditry’ predict a very close election – we pray they are wrong; it would not be the first time in American history!
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