On December 4, 2008, at NYC's Symphony Space, NPR's Intelligence Squared program conducted an Oxford-style debate. As their future debate schedules in Australia, England, and America show, the propositions of such debates are routinely phrased strongly to provoke debate, and this was no exception. The motion that was put forward was: "Resolved, that Bush 43 is the worst President of the last 50 years." [mp3, 23 MB, 50 min.] What lifts this above the reams of media and multimedia already spent on this issue is that, moderated by ABC's John Donvan, this premise was debated — under formal debate guidelines — by Jacob Weisberg, Sir Simon Jenkins, Bill Kristol, and ... Karl Rove. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Jan 6, 2009 - 28 comments

Prime Minister's Questions is a weekly televised convention in the UK started in the 1950s during which Members of Parliament get a chance to hold their leader accountable for his or her actions. Sick of boring political meetings? "PMQ" is fast-paced, hip, heated, eloquent, insulting, and sometimes hilarious. In fact, the inherant humor of it is has been well explored.

But brits aren't the only ones; "Question Time", as it's called generically, has been adapted in other countries as well. Yet the show often shocks Americans since the concept of weekly unscripted access to leaders without giving days of question prep-time seems like a fantasy. Of course, maybe the alternative (0:41) is much worse.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed on Dec 5, 2006 - 63 comments

Finally, The Bush vs. Blair debate that we've all waited to see. Silly Friday-Flash. [Warning, contains profanity]
posted by metaxa on Nov 25, 2005 - 22 comments

Bush's suit bulge revisited: Originally it was thought to be a hidden radio prompter (that Bush laughed off in an interview). Others speculated it was a bullet proof vest, and maybe troutfishing almost got it right. So now, the latest theory is a portable defibrillator.
Is the president as healthy as they'd want us to believe?
(more inside)
via cryptome
posted by forforf on Dec 27, 2004 - 39 comments

EVIL/LIVE is a 28 minute edit of the first debate featuring Bush listening to and debating with himself. It may be broadcast, copied, distributed, edited etc. without permission. (170 MB / 635 MB) [via nettime]
posted by boost ventilator on Nov 5, 2004 - 8 comments

Bush & Kerry Round Three: Doin' Damage in Gammage
It was going to be done. again. I'm just the one doing it.
posted by whatnot on Oct 13, 2004 - 396 comments

Framing the Economic Debate. If you read Metafilter, you've no doubt seen a few links criticizing Bush's handling of the economy. The unabashed partisans at the Heritage Foundation have put together a document from which many of Bush's talking points about the economy (tonight, and throughout the campaign) are likely to come.
posted by Kwantsar on Oct 8, 2004 - 16 comments

On eve of tonight's debate, more bad news for Bush. The economy stumbled last month, with only 96,000 new jobs -- far short of the 138,000 jobs the Bush Administration predicted, or the 150,000 new jobs needed every month just to keep up with population growth. Another interesting tidbit is that 37,000 of the 96,000 new jobs are government employees, up from 24,000 in August and 11,000 in July. Is the timing coincidental? Meanwhile, electoral-vote.com changed their methodology -- again -- so that it more accurately reflects recent poll results. The difference is striking.
posted by insomnia_lj on Oct 8, 2004 - 36 comments

The Toronto Star asked its reader to pick the winner in Thursday's debate between George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.
posted by johnnydark on Oct 1, 2004 - 62 comments

No debate. The Commission on Presidential Debates: the "unconscionable fraud" brought to you by Corporate America.
posted by four panels on Sep 29, 2004 - 47 comments

Al Gore on tomorrow's Bush-Kerry duel: The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''
posted by CunningLinguist on Sep 29, 2004 - 37 comments

Boom! No, that's not the sound of the bottom falling out of the economy...Michael Moore has directed System of Down's lasted video (as he has done for R.E.M. once and Rage Against the Machine twice) using footage of recent focus groups protests against the "jumping [of] Iraq." Moore also wrote a letter to the president and will be talking about Anti-Americanism on Tuesday's Oprah. Moore Watch has yet to respond.
posted by boost ventilator on Mar 17, 2003 - 32 comments

Bush campaign source of debate tape smear attempt. In this campaign follow-up sure to delight all you anti-Bushies--in case Rove's possible insider trading or Bush's disingenuous charm offensive in Europe hasn't sufficed--an ex-Bush campaign aide pleads guilty.
posted by Joe Hutch on Jun 15, 2001 - 13 comments

The Real Gore/Bush Debate Transcript -- "The candidates have agreed on these rules: I will ask a question. The candidate will ignore the question and deliver rehearsed remarks designed to appeal to undecided women voters. The opponent will then have one minute to respond by trying to frighten senior citizens into voting for him."
posted by rcade on Oct 20, 2000 - 9 comments

The Internet caused the Columbine massacre, according to George W. Bush in Wednesday night's presidential debate. Maybe Al Gore shouldn't have been so quick to claim that he took the initiative in creating the Internet.
posted by rcade on Oct 11, 2000 - 13 comments

Monkeyfist has some alternate questions for the two candidates.
posted by queequeg on Oct 4, 2000 - 3 comments