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Given the presidential candidates' interest in a series of town hall-style forums for them to show their stuff to voters, Mayor Bloomberg and ABC News president David Westin proposed this morning that Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama kicks things off in NYC and participate in a 90-minute town hall at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. However, McCain's and Obama's campaigns aren't so sure.
Bloomberg and Westin's letter said, "We are thrilled to see you both embrace the idea of joint town hall meetings where voters can an have unfiltered opportunity to hear how each candidate would address the great issues facing our country" and suggested that Diane Sawyer could moderate. Politico reported that Bloomberg even offered to "help the candidates shape the format"--he does love public service, after all.
Then, a few hours after the offer was reported, the two campaigns indicated that they'd like the town hall to be, per the Obama statement, "open to all networks for broadcast on TV or internet like the presidential commission debates rather than sponsored by a single network or news organization," and, per the McCain statement, that the town halls should be "open to press but not sponsored or moderated by the press.”
ABC News says it's open to discussing a way to share the town hall, "We think the important thing is bringing the candidates together." It would be great to have a town hall at Federal Hall, which is where George Washington was sworn in as the first president back in 1789 and where there's currently an exhibit of Associated Press photographs of presidents.
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bloomberg= attention whore and monopolist. we should start a countdown clock for him
remember how awful the ridiculous ABC News-moderated debate was last time around? really, ABC News has lost all credibility and respect in my book.
After the ABC Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapolous clusterfuck I think Obama would do well to never accept an offer from ABC again.
The network tried to sabotage him, luckily he walked away from it to fight another day.
You spelled "apparently" wrong in the headline.
Washington was not sworn in at Federal Hall. He was sworn in what was the old city hall of NYC that was located on the same site.
"The network tried to sabotage him, luckily he walked away from it to fight another day. "
I heard that ABC is typically a conservative station and NBC on the other hand, more liberal.
Regardless of which network is asking, presidential debates should never be exclusive to one network.
And frankly, the anchors that do double duty hosting these debates have demonstrated they are wholly incapable of conducting them. I've seen high school debate team matches with better moderators.
Gothamist "aparently" lacks SpellCheck (TM).
"Gothamist "aparently" lacks SpellCheck"
Seriously, is it THAT difficult to run spellcheck before you post articles??? If necessary, do your writing in Word and then cut and paste it after you've made your corrections. The constant typos and misspelled words don't do a whole lot for your credibility...
Obama doesn't really want to debate, just like he didn't want open primaries. He is only in his element giving canned uplifting speeches that are light on any actual specifics. He has the most controlled and politically savvy campaign in some time... on stark contrast to his outside of washing ton rhetoric.
"...just like he didn't want open primaries"
Bullshit. WTF are you referring to (if not MI and FL, which wasn't about "open" anything but more like trying to change the rules once you are losing.) Give it a rest already.
Obama probably made the first call and the McCain camp followed suit. We will see a lot of that.
RE:Bloomberg. That's the mayor you get in the age of Bush. Can't wait for his term to be over. He's like the Berlusconi of New York. He seems like such a good and reasonable businessman. But he has always been in place to secure the interests of the people who are draining NYC dry. Vampires all.
Excellent points above! Just the fact that that unctuous snake, David Westin has anything to do with this is reason enough to emphatically say no. But what chutzpah! Their last "network debate" was so horribly stage-managed by ABC that it really came off as a desperate one-off, as though they would never get another debate again...and now this! ABC News is so wretched, I wouldn't believe them if all they did was weather!
Neither candidate is afraid to debate in NYC.
They are just terrified of falling construction cranes.