O'Malley and Sanders to attend a town hall at Netroots Nation:

[Raine1967]

And here is the best part, it will be a town hall between Governor O'MAlley and Senator Sanders.

http://www.netrootsnation.org/gov-omalley-and-sen-sanders-to-participate-in-netroots-nation-town-hall/

Former Maryland Gov. O’Malley and Sen. Sanders of Vermont will participate in the Town Hall on Saturday, July 18, at 10:30 a.m. To date, the Clinton campaign has declined our invitation to participate. We are hopeful that as the date approaches the campaign will reconsider addressing this core progressive community who are most eager to hear from her. The Town Hall will include a moderated audience Q&A.

Seeing these two in a town hall is going to really differentiate the two candidates.
If Clinton decides to join it would be the first (unofficial non debate) debate we have. This is big news.

original post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12811072

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. That will be interesting!

[Autumn]

2. Cool. I look forward to that

[FSogol]

3. Remember what I said about having any debate you want and calling it a town hall discussion or

something else?

[Raine1967]

4. I vaguely remember that, FS.

As I was typing this I was thinking about the DNC debate rules.

This article comes to mind. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/05/democrats-presidential-debates_n_7214218.html

[FSogol]

5. Yes, there was much wailing about that on DU, I said, don't worry,

To those worried about the DNC debate exclusivity rules....
C'mon, that rule is joke. The candidates can appear wherever and say, we're not having a debate, we are having a

(insert one)

Roundtable Discussion
Campaign Event
Q&A Session
Multi-Candidate Town Hall Meeting
Reflection Symposium
Get-to-Know-The-Candidates Event
Polemical Conference
Brunch
Candidate Interview
Revival


I think people ought to have a little faith in their candidate and their ability to run a campaign. it is not a debate, it is a town hall discussion.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026807859

[Raine1967]

8. Agreed.

This is going to be a really great town hall meeting.

[dreamnightwind]

9. And play into the DNC's hands

I doubt the DNC would be required to include any candidate participating in those events (the non-debates) in their debates, the DNC could just say the candidate violated their rules and not include them, whether or not it is literally true. The banned candidate(s) could perhaps take them to court, if they win the case it would probably be after the debates anyway, too late.

They'd be all too happy to have Hillary debate Biden, Chafee, and Webb. No Sanders or O'Malley, no problem as far as the DNC is concerned.

[FSogol]

11. Never happen. O'Malley and Sanders will both be at the Democratic debates.

Even if the DNC was totally for HRC (and I don't believe it is) they need to lend legitimacy to the debates. Excluding reasonable candidates would look bad. Also, the more candidates, the less time each one has to get their points across. We'll see the 3 of them debating. Doubt Chafee and Webb make it that far.

[dreamnightwind]

12. Well I think they will be there too

But I disagree that the DNC or the Hillary campaign would be concerned about looking bad, or would think they'd look bad by excluding Sanders and O'Malley.

If the other candidates don't play by their "rules", or even if they technically do but give the DNC an excuse to say otherwise, I think the DNC would be all too happy to not have any trouble-makers who are not down with the larger agenda (corporatism) in the debates. The corporate media would have their backs. I have no doubt whatsoever they'd do something like that, they have no shame and would love to exclude real progressives, we see it all the time.

[bigtree]

6. k&r

[Raine1967]

7. Confirmed: Clinton will not attend.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-skip-major-progressive-event?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

“Our campaign looks forward to earning the support of the Democrats participating in this conference but Hillary Clinton has scheduling conflicts which will prevent her from attending. She wishes them the best on their conference,” said Clinton campaign spokesperson Jesse Ferguson.

Former Sen. Jim Webb was not invited because he has not declared whether he will run for the Democratic nomination. Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who was a Republican until 2013 and joined the 2016 presidential race as a Democrat, was also not invited.

“We don’t have plans to invite Chafee,” said Netroots Nation executive director Raven Brooks. “We’re going to continue to look at the field as it evolves but since it is a town hall format we don’t want to steal time from the candidates we have on board just to be inclusive.”

Netroots, originally started by DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas to organize online opposition to the Iraq War, is perhaps the largest annual gathering of progressive movement activists in the country, and often attracts Democratic candidates and officeholders.

I hope she will reconsider. She was invited last year as well and declined. Last time she attended was in 2007.

[dreamnightwind]

10. I would like to see them run on the same ticket - n/t