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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Extracurricular Activities

Just wanted to note, for the record, a couple of things I was involved in outside this site.
Yesterday I was one of 41 journalists (I’m pretty sure the list has grown since it was first published) signing onto an open letter to ABC deploring the tone and content of the Democratic presidential debate the network sponsored on Wednesday. Given what I’ve posted here on the subject, it seemed like a natural step to take. But I do want to make it clear I was acting solely for myself, and not for TDS or its co-editors.
I also did a post at TPMCafe commenting negatively on an effort by Jamie Kirchick of The New Republic (disputed on their site by Jonathan Chait and Isaac Chotiner) to defend the proposition that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s endorsement and active campaigning for John McCain is compatible with his past protestations of loyalty to the Democratic Party. I wrote this because I thought it would be useful to hear a Joe’s-Crossed-the-Final-Line argument from someone who’s never been accused of Lieberman-hatred or TNR-hatred–particularly someone who doesn’t accept the idea that Lieberman’s been some sort of crypto-Republican all along.

2 comments on “Extracurricular Activities

  1. velocipede on

    I think Badger missed the point. Both Clinton and Obama got questions about recent misstatement (snipers, bitterness). The problem is that about half of the less than 2 hours alloted to the “debate” were spent on these topics rather than the serious issues facing the nation.
    Maybe it is too late this year, but in the future, I hope the candidates and campaigns step in and say enough is enough. How about substantial debates on real issues. Two-hours of prepared presentations and responses just on health care, for example. No “I’m gonna getcha with a gotcha questions” moderators, but instead formal debates with fixed length turns and time for rebuttals. Who needs the networks? They could be uploaded straight to the Internet.

    Reply
  2. Badger on

    Funny how no one seemed to care when it was Hillary being raked over the coals by the moderators during the debates.
    But now that the Sainted One is getting the treatment suddenly everyone is up in arms over it.

    Reply

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