President Bush is afraid of participating in the town-hall debate.

[phantom power]

According to recent news reports, the Bush campaign is attempting to reduce the number of debates the President has with John Kerry from the three proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates to only two. More specifically, they are attempting to eliminate the town-hall-style debate scheduled for October 8 in St. Louis.

EDIT

If there is one debate that the President would rather skip, it's the town-hall, because it calls Bush to do the things he is least capable of: responding to unpredictable questions, talking about a wide range of issues, and addressing the day-to-day concerns of real people. And it would be a shame, because the town-hall is far and away the most entertaining and edifying format.

EDIT

First, it turned out that ordinary citizens ask much better questions than journalists. The pre-1992 format, in which a panel of journalists would question the candidate, was dominated by efforts to play "gotcha" – with their brief moment on the national stage, reporters often asked candidates questions of the "Have you stopped beating your wife" variety in hopes of creating a compelling slip-up. They also focused on process, with questions about campaign strategy and tactics.

EDIT

The second distinction of town-hall debates is that citizen questioners tend to cover much greater ground than journalist questioners. While reporters – who travel and think in a giant pack most of the time – tend to focus on the few issues that are dominating the campaign, citizens have brought concerns to the town-hall debate that a Washington journalist might never have thought of. For instance, in the 2000 town-hall debate, Bush and Gore fielded questions about national health insurance, FDA procedures for approving new drugs, education, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, military overstretch, the Brady Law, family farms, low turnout among young people, taxes, affirmative action, and the death penalty. Both campaigns can predict fairly accurately what questions a journalist will ask them. But you can never tell what an ordinary citizen is going to bring up.
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=213

[ClassWarrior]

1. He's not afraid. He just refuses to answer to the American people.

He's the Excuse pResident.

[Drifter]

2. Why do candidates have ANY say ...

as to the format of the debates ?

Isn't the purpose of the debates to discover more about the candidates than the crap they blather on about day in and day out ?

Setup the fucking debates. If a candidate doesn't show up, then they obviously have more important priorities. It will speak volumes.

Personally, I believe that there should be public debates (2 per week) for the last 6 weeks (or longer) of the race.

Cheers
Drifter

[freesqueeze]

3. All Three Debates Set

I understand the Bush's hand holders have agreed to all three debates.

Isn't it an indictment against the media members involved when the sitting President has more to fear from the questions of the random undecided voter than the actual media members? They should be ashamed when this compulsive liar President gets a free pass from them.

Disgusting!

[goddess40]

4. Bush seems to know his limits (sometimes)

He knows he would choke in a town hall setting - one that wasn't carefully scripted.

[AlexHamilton]

5. 5 Tough Questions for President Bush

Here is a link to an article I wrote for OpEdNews.com that details some questions I would love to hear some people ask Bush in a townhall style meeting.

Read the article here

Also, check out my website at
IBTP

Alex Hamilton