Rhetorical Questions. "Who will win the presidential debates? What does each candidate’s use of words say about how he would govern as president? Can Obama’s rhetorical skills lift him to the heights of Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan—or will his speechmaking do him in? After watching all 47 (!) of the primary season’s debates, our correspondent has the answers—and some harsh criticism for the moderators."
posted by chunking express on Aug 15, 2008 - 86 comments

Chomsky v. Dershowitz - It's on. via counterpunch
posted by minkll on Nov 29, 2005 - 52 comments

Debate Site Grapple in the Apple! Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway argue live, now, about the Iraq War. Sorry about the minimal FPP, but it's all about the boxing match debate.
posted by reality on Sep 14, 2005 - 55 comments

Well, shit. Apparently NASA uses Photoshop to analyze photographs taken by spacecraft.
posted by kenko on Oct 28, 2004 - 25 comments

Debating for Ratings [yet another flash movie] Do-good media reform group answers the questions no one asked: What if the media set the rules of the debates? What if campaign coverage took the same form as Big Media's favorite low-cost, high-profit programming — reality TV?
posted by drywall on Oct 7, 2004 - 1 comment

The amazing debate spotter text analysis tool is a fun way to look at the words our leaders use. Bush had a lot of obvious ones: hard work, wrong time, wrong place, he forgot poland. Kerry name dropped Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden quite a bit and had the highest kill ratio. Here's Cameron's post about how it came to be and how it works. Politics in the age of the internet are certainly an interesting time.
posted by mathowie on Oct 1, 2004 - 36 comments

An excellent WashPost primer on the lies each candidate is currently telling about the other, and how they hold up to reality. Also, enjoy the many euphemisms employed to avoid the "L" word: (Misleading. Inaccurate. Oversimplified. Exaggerated. Carefully selected. Unfair. etc etc) Who will be the first mainstream media outlet to state plainly that a politician has told a lie? Login: shutyomouf@hotmail.com - pw:shaftbaby)
posted by luser on Sep 30, 2004 - 6 comments

Life imitates parody of life. Much like last night's Daily Show segment mocking the idea of pre-written post-debate analysis, here's the Associated Press' post-debate summary. And not a second too soon, what with the debate not starting for another five hours or so.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Sep 30, 2004 - 46 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

Turnabout hyperbole fair play? Boy, it's a good thing there weren't a lot of people going around saying terrorists would want John Kerry to win the election or anything silly like that.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Mar 17, 2004 - 19 comments

What is patriotism? Why is this war going ahead? One of a few questions being thrown around on War Debate, albeit not factual or profound. The site looks fairly new so you can post there to keep all the war jabber off MeFi.
posted by h0ney on Feb 12, 2003 - 18 comments

Vice Presidential Debates: Though I disagree with everything he stands for, Dick Cheney came off as a much more eloquent and intelligent individual than did George W. Bush. This raises an interesting question - should GWB win the election, who will really be running the country?
posted by aladfar on Oct 5, 2000 - 14 comments

Arrggg!!! LA NBC is showing baseball! I should have figured that people in Southern California would be more interested in watching sports than the debates.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Oct 3, 2000 - 7 comments

Salon lists ten questions that won't be asked at the debates and I find them pretty tame, with a few exceptions. Instead of emailing the author with questions you'd like to see I'd rather read what the people here have to say.
posted by skallas on Oct 2, 2000 - 15 comments

FBI focuses on McKinnon staffer Lozano in the debate tape probe.
"A federal source said the label on the Express Mail package received by Downey also directly corresponds to the date and time Lozano was filmed by a security camera mailing a package in the Austin post office." (via Washington Post)
posted by tamim on Sep 30, 2000 - 1 comment

Reuters 09/22 6:34PM -- NBC, which in August bid for the exclusive right to host a presidential debate, said on Friday it would broadcast a baseball game instead of the first showdown between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. "We have a contract with major-league baseball. You don't seriously think we have any interest in democracy, do you?,'' said NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin. "If we were offerred more than the value of the baseball contract, we would be televising it.''
posted by sudama on Sep 22, 2000 - 6 comments

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: GORE MOLE SUSPECTED TO HAVE INFILTRATED BUSH CAMPAIGN; FBI MOVES IN; DEBATE PREP TAPE EXPOSED BREACH This could be big. I remember when I read about the whole Moncia dress incident on the Drudge Report and look what happened... I hope to god it is not true, I couldn't stand Bush winning because of something like this.

PS, don't yell at me for the caps, it's Drudge. What do you expect?
posted by Brilliantcrank on Sep 22, 2000 - 5 comments

Maybe Dubya needs a pinch-hitter to take his place opposite Gore at the debates planned by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
posted by harmful on Sep 7, 2000 - 3 comments

Bush Evades Prime-Time Debates. "Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said Bush's 'idea of the perfect debate is on Austin cable access during the Olympic finals women's gymnastics.'"
posted by lbergstr on Aug 29, 2000 - 21 comments

This from the no-graphics page of the Progressive Review: "DAVID LETTERMAN has recently expressed interest in hosting a presidential debate and has not decided whether or not to include Ralph Nader. To express your view on this matter call the short at (212) 975-5300 and ask for Art."
Sounds like fun to watch if it's true, if it even plays out.
posted by dcehr on Aug 3, 2000 - 2 comments

Does God exist? In a day and age where people are somewhat better educated (than say 500 years ago), we are taught to think freely and form our own opinions. As a result, it is no surprise that Christianity is nowhere near as strong as it was back in its glory days. Here are some good debates between University professors over the existence of God. Very good arguments from both sides. Very thought-provoking stuff. I, for one, believe there are far too many people who blindly believe in a religion because it is the easy way out. Tell me what you think.
posted by PWA_BadBoy on May 31, 2000 - 38 comments