Obama/McCain Town Halls -- Just Do It
Based on recent reporting, it looks like the Obama/McCain town halls, once a possibility, have been abandoned by he Obama camp. I believe that this is a great missed opportunity for the following reasons.
1. McCain the Gaffe Machine -- Most of McCain's biggest gaffes (100 years in Iraq) have come at town halls. This guy is a loose cannon on the deck. We need to get this guy in front of as many people as possible as often as possible. Statistically, a potential career ending gaffe is practically inevitable.
2. Obama Needs Them More than McCain Does -- The trend of the polling shows that low information voters still don't know enough about Barack to be comfortable with him. The more people see Barack, the more comfortable they see his intelligence, his thoughtfulness, his engaging personality, and the more they will like him. Contrawise, the more people see McCain, and the more pressure he is put under, the more his prickly personality come through.
3. It is the best way to counteract the smears -- Again with the low information voters, all they know about him is the Muslim-radical-pledge of allegiance emails, McCain's negative ads, and the MSM's feeble repitition of the same. The best way to counteract these smears is for people to get to know Barack directly, in an unmediated, unedited forum. The more they see him directly, the more they will see that he is nothing like the twisted image that has been created of him.
4. Seizing Control of the Narrative -- If the town hall meetings happen, they will dominate campaign coverage as nothing else could -- more than ads, more than the MSM, more than the ground game.
This is a battle that I believe Barack would eventually win. Side by side -- there is simply no comparison between Barack and McCain -- Barack would win simply by walking on stage. This is the way to build the kind of landslide that would give us a shot at real reform.
That being said, here is the huge caveat that must be heeded in order for this to work
1. Control of the Audience -- As beneficial as I believe town halls could be to Barack, it would have been sheer folly for the campaign to have simply accepted McCain's initial challenge and walked into the town hall meetings arranged by the McCain campaign. He might as well have conceded the election on the spot. Why? Control of the audience, and therefore control of the questioning at those events, was completely in the McCain campaign's hands. The campaign must insist on some fair way to control who gets to ask questions. One way would be for a neutral third party pollster to identify and select truly undecided voters to form the pool of questioners. This should be done without any intervention from the campaign. Each voter should be vetted -- i.e. check their background to ensure that they have not been involved in elective politics in the past, either as a volunteer or as a contributor, and that they are not members of an interest group, e.g. NRA, NARAL, etc. We must do something to ensure that no plants are put into the room. Order of questioning would be determined by lottery, but the questions would NOT be submitted ahead of time.
Another method of controlling questioning would be completely conterintuitive. This would be to give each campaign a set number of tickets to the event so that only supporters of the two candidates would be in the room. The twist? Only Obama supporters could ask McCain questions and only McCain supporters could ask Obama questions. Why might this work? The same principle that kept the Soviet Union and the U.S. from blowing each other up during the Cold War -- mutual assured destruction. I would prepare Barack's people with two separate questions fed to each supporter -- one polite question and one bombshell -- and they would each be prepared to go after McCain if McCain's people go after Barack.
I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness on this. I posted a diary on this over at dailykos.com and got maybe two or three positive comments out of a bout 20. I have formed a group at mybarackobama.com in an effort to build support for this idea. Here's the link
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamaMcCainTownHalls--JustDoIt
If you like this idea, please recommend this diary and join my group. Thanks for reading this diary
Dave in DC 2
1. McCain the Gaffe Machine -- Most of McCain's biggest gaffes (100 years in Iraq) have come at town halls. This guy is a loose cannon on the deck. We need to get this guy in front of as many people as possible as often as possible. Statistically, a potential career ending gaffe is practically inevitable.
2. Obama Needs Them More than McCain Does -- The trend of the polling shows that low information voters still don't know enough about Barack to be comfortable with him. The more people see Barack, the more comfortable they see his intelligence, his thoughtfulness, his engaging personality, and the more they will like him. Contrawise, the more people see McCain, and the more pressure he is put under, the more his prickly personality come through.
3. It is the best way to counteract the smears -- Again with the low information voters, all they know about him is the Muslim-radical-pledge of allegiance emails, McCain's negative ads, and the MSM's feeble repitition of the same. The best way to counteract these smears is for people to get to know Barack directly, in an unmediated, unedited forum. The more they see him directly, the more they will see that he is nothing like the twisted image that has been created of him.
4. Seizing Control of the Narrative -- If the town hall meetings happen, they will dominate campaign coverage as nothing else could -- more than ads, more than the MSM, more than the ground game.
This is a battle that I believe Barack would eventually win. Side by side -- there is simply no comparison between Barack and McCain -- Barack would win simply by walking on stage. This is the way to build the kind of landslide that would give us a shot at real reform.
That being said, here is the huge caveat that must be heeded in order for this to work
1. Control of the Audience -- As beneficial as I believe town halls could be to Barack, it would have been sheer folly for the campaign to have simply accepted McCain's initial challenge and walked into the town hall meetings arranged by the McCain campaign. He might as well have conceded the election on the spot. Why? Control of the audience, and therefore control of the questioning at those events, was completely in the McCain campaign's hands. The campaign must insist on some fair way to control who gets to ask questions. One way would be for a neutral third party pollster to identify and select truly undecided voters to form the pool of questioners. This should be done without any intervention from the campaign. Each voter should be vetted -- i.e. check their background to ensure that they have not been involved in elective politics in the past, either as a volunteer or as a contributor, and that they are not members of an interest group, e.g. NRA, NARAL, etc. We must do something to ensure that no plants are put into the room. Order of questioning would be determined by lottery, but the questions would NOT be submitted ahead of time.
Another method of controlling questioning would be completely conterintuitive. This would be to give each campaign a set number of tickets to the event so that only supporters of the two candidates would be in the room. The twist? Only Obama supporters could ask McCain questions and only McCain supporters could ask Obama questions. Why might this work? The same principle that kept the Soviet Union and the U.S. from blowing each other up during the Cold War -- mutual assured destruction. I would prepare Barack's people with two separate questions fed to each supporter -- one polite question and one bombshell -- and they would each be prepared to go after McCain if McCain's people go after Barack.
I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness on this. I posted a diary on this over at dailykos.com and got maybe two or three positive comments out of a bout 20. I have formed a group at mybarackobama.com in an effort to build support for this idea. Here's the link
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamaMcCainTownHalls--JustDoIt
If you like this idea, please recommend this diary and join my group. Thanks for reading this diary
Dave in DC 2
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This is the one decision on the part of Obama's campaign that I have difficulty defending. And trust me moderate Republicans and independents who ARE "thinking of" voting for him are asking why he won't do them. It seems to go against his openness and 'different kind of campaign' ... and I think it is fueled by their desire to see him "in person". All those primary debates certainly didn't hurt him.
August 5, 2008 8:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
One or two town halls is one thing, but...
I'll give you a reason to defend the decision:
it was all McCain's plan. Maybe it was good, but it was McCain's, and I don't think Obama wants to cede ground to him, especially at this point. McCain would look like the leader, and Obama the follower.
Sure, more town halls could expose the McCain "gaffe machine," but who's gaffes, if they occur, will get more coverage? Who's gaffes might not be covered at all?
Obama has more important things to do around the country. Doing SO MANY town halls, as McCain had proposed, would have taken out vital time in his campaigning, fundraising, etc. If he had taken up McCain's original plan, for example, he could have just forgotten doing his overseas trip.
Now, I'm not too keen on just three debates. I think one is town-hall style? I would have liked Obama's original proposition of five debates. But McCain rejected them.
I can see where it's hard to defend Obama's decision, but I can see plenty of reasons for why he did it.
August 5, 2008 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good points, but:
- Obama sucks at unscripted debates
- McCain's gaffes, unless truly awful, will be attributed to old age. You don't ridicule old people, you show respect to them, unless you want to be seen as a desperate punk
- Controlling the questions... Hmmm, are you for real???? I thought this a Dem candidate we're talking about
August 5, 2008 8:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't see why anyone would let this influence their voting decision. One town hall was more than enough. Ten were unreasonable. The fact that he wouldn't negotiate says something more about John McCain than Barack Obama. If anyone uses this as an excuse to not vote for Obama, they were looking for exactly that - an excuse.
August 6, 2008 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just want to add that it's surprising that Barack Obama supporters are contributing to the town hall drumbeat. That plays right into John McCain's hands. I have no doubt that Sen. Obama will clean up when they do appear together. He seems like a person who exercises restraint in playing trump cards.
August 6, 2008 3:03 AM | Reply | Permalink