What debate advice would you give the candidates?

[Missourian]

What should your candidate hammer on or avoid?

What do you expect from the opposition?

 

[Silence]

Obama should hit McCain on his career as a deregulator. He should also hit him on his changing opinions on various topics as much as possible.

Obama should avoid talking about being against the surge since most people believe it actually worked but if he can't avoid it he should stress that he was opposed to the war in Iraq from the beginning and if the war hadn't happened then the surge wouldn't have been needed in the first place.

Obama should focus on our weakened position with other countries and how McCain has a "john wayne" approach much like Bush's and what that has done to our place as a respected nation in the world.

McCain should focus on being a POW and how that makes him qualified to be President

He should avoid everything else

eta: I expect McCain to make personal and unfounded attacks against Obama. I expect him to lie repeatedly.

 

[Navy1960]

For McCain, limit the number of "my friends" each and everytime he talks.

For Obama, limit the number "Umm Uhhs" each time he talks, and I'm willing to bet he tosses the word change around like frisbee.

Another thing for McCain would be to make sure he knows the difference between Sunni's and Shia, and for Obama make sure he knows that Hugo Chavez actually came to power BEFORE Bush became president.

On the economy, I would rather them say what they ARE going to do rather than try and use the same *talking point* blame game it's your parties fault blabber. It's about time the finger pointing stopped and they started talking about what they actually have policy wise on their own damn websites rather than in each sentence, "Well John McCain voted this way" or "Barack Obama voted that way". Maybe, I'm setting the bar too high on that one, but my prediction is the winner will be the person who DOES NOT play the blame game.

 

[Jon]

Obama should avoid talking about being against the surge since most people believe it actually worked but if he can't avoid it he should stress that he was opposed to the war in Iraq from the beginning and if the war hadn't happened then the surge wouldn't have been needed in the first place.

Yes, Obama should remind the country that he opposed attacking a known enemy who, according to all reports, had nuclear capabilities. That should remind everyone how little he cares about national security.

 

[Silence]

Yes, Obama should remind the country that he opposed attacking a known enemy who, according to all reports, had nuclear capabilities. That should remind everyone how little he cares about national security.

a known enemy? really? did they attack this country? NO

were there Iraqi forces set with WMD aimed at us? NO

weren't those reports FALSE and didn't the Bush administration KNOW they were false when they presented them? YES

Iraq was NEVER a threat to our national security...that has been proven time and again.... and you continuing to repeat the Bush lies only makes you look utterly pathetic.

why didn't we go after the Saudi's? 15 or the 19 highjackers were Saudi

Why did we abandon Afghanistan? that's where Bin Laden was afterall....

Why don't we invade Korea? they have nuclear weapons too don't they?

Why are we allowed to have nuclear weapons but feel that somehow other countries aren't entitled to protect THEMSELVES from US?! especially given our history of unprovoked attacks...

 

[Jon]

weren't those reports FALSE and didn't the Bush administration KNOW they were false when they presented them? YES

That has nothing to do with Obama's stance on the war. To his knowledge, and to the knowledge of everyone who actually voted on the war, the reports were true. Still, he opposed it. He never once questioned the validity of the reports, he simply opposed the war.

If he is elected and someone hands him a report saying that Russia is aiming nukes at us, what will his response be? History suggests that he'll oppose military action.

 

[notomccain]

obama should talk only about the economy 24/7 now. i would also focus on making palin a national laughingstock. palin has been well hidden by mccain for good reason.

as far as mccain, his stunt of yesterday seems to have backfired. he should say obama is inexperienced but then, so is palin. mccain is behind and i expect him to go totally negative now.

 

[notomccain]

i personally think the iraq war was a war that never should have been fought.

 

[Jon]

obama should talk only about the economy 24/7 now.

Since tonight's debate is about FOREIGN POLICY, I don't think the economy really comes into play.

If Obama focuses any attention on Palin, he'll simply prove the fact that he's better suited for running against the Republican's VP candidate and not their Presidential candidate - one of the many reasons they chose Palin.

 

[Jon]

i personally think the iraq war was a war that never should have been fought.

In hindsight, so do I. But when the reports saying they are developing nukes and plan to use em, for fuck's sake, you do something.

 

[jillian]

That has nothing to do with Obama's stance on the war. To his knowledge, and to the knowledge of everyone who actually voted on the war, the reports were true. Still, he opposed it. He never once questioned the validity of the reports, he simply opposed the war.

An awful lot of us knew it was BS then.

But more than that... people keep saying that Congress' resolution was a green light for immediate military action.

It never was. There were all kinds of preconditions put in (which were ignored by the admin)

Iraq Resolution

This was made clear on the floor of the senate:

Hillary Clinton's Floor Speech:

So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him - use these powers wisely and as a last resort. And it is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein - this is your last chance - disarm or be disarmed.

Floor Speech of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on S.J. Res. 45, A Resolution to Authorize the Use of<br>United States Armed Forces Against Iraq

That said, I, personally, wouldn't have voted for it.

 

[Silence]

That has nothing to do with Obama's stance on the war. To his knowledge, and to the knowledge of everyone who actually voted on the war, the reports were true. Still, he opposed it. He never once questioned the validity of the reports, he simply opposed the war.

If he is elected and someone hands him a report saying that Russia is aiming nukes at us, what will his response be? History suggests that he'll oppose military action.

perhaps he opposed the war because the war was supposed to be in response to the attacks of 9/11 and going after Osama Bin Laden... Iraq wasn't involved in 9/11...

Iraq was Bush 43s way of one upping his daddy... pure and simple..

I do love the logic though: just because Obama was right, but for a different reason than the reports were LIES, he's still wrong...

Bush wasn't "handed" reports that said Iraq had WMD, he had them GENERATED for the purpose of going to war....

as for Russia, I assume that going to war with NUKES will be the last option for ANY president...or at least I hope so... NO ONE will win a nuclear war you fucking idiot....

 

[Jon]

An awful lot of us knew it was BS then.

Really? You had proof it was BS? It would be nice for you to share that with the rest of the country then.

 

[Jon]

Bush wasn't "handed" reports that said Iraq had WMD, he had them GENERATED for the purpose of going to war....

Again, that has NOTHING to do with Obama. The officials told the country, "Iraq has nukes." Obama said, "No war." If he, like jillian apparently, knew the reports were false and had evidence, perhaps he should have informed us.

Yes, Bush lied. But we didn't know that until after the fact.

Obama was right to oppose the war, but for all the wrong reasons. He opposed it because he's a pacifist, not because he thought we were being lied to.

 

[jillian]

Really? You had proof it was BS? It would be nice for you to share that with the rest of the country then.

The rest of the country had it, too. Some of us actually read things.

UNMOVIC - [ Selected Security Council Briefings ]

CNN.com - Transcript of Blix's remarks - Jan. 27, 2003

UNMOVIC - [ Selected Security Council Briefings ]

 

[busara]

Again, that has NOTHING to do with Obama. The officials told the country, "Iraq has nukes." Obama said, "No war." If he, like jillian apparently, knew the reports were false and had evidence, perhaps he should have informed us.

Yes, Bush lied. But we didn't know that until after the fact.

Obama was right to oppose the war, but for all the wrong reasons. He opposed it because he's a pacifist, not because he thought we were being lied to.

lots of countries have nukes. why havent we attacked them?

 

[jillian]

Obama will push judgment and the $$ and the fact that CURRENTLY he knows the difference between shi'a and sunni and has a much better handle on the reality of the world situation. he also, as was shown yesterday, has a much better temperment and is much more focused in crisis situations.

McCain ... will talk about being a POW ... and will talk about the surge "working" while trying to keep away from issues dealing with why we went in in the first place.

They'll also talk about Iran.. where McCain is going to have to work very hard at NOT sounding like Bush Lite.

 

[Silence]

Again, that has NOTHING to do with Obama. The officials told the country, "Iraq has nukes." Obama said, "No war." If he, like jillian apparently, knew the reports were false and had evidence, perhaps he should have informed us.

so it doesn't even phase you that Obama was RIGHT? all you focus on is a bunch of fucking LIES?

Yes, Bush lied. But we didn't know that until after the fact.

well if more people had been willing to stand up and say no to the war and if more time had been taken to actually investigate the war wouldn't have happened. The POINT IS, the Iraq war should've never taken place... being against it, for whatever reason, is better than being FOR IT and then changing your mind only AFTER being told it's BULLSHIT!

Obama was right to oppose the war, but for all the wrong reasons. He opposed it because he's a pacifist, not because he thought we were being lied to.

I have no problem with being a pacifist, since I am one myself but I don't think I've ever heard him say he wouldn't take our forces to war in Afghanistan to fight the war on terror, have you? Has he not said the war in Iraq deverted us from our REAL mission, the war on Bin Laden and his operatives... Iraq was a worthless and unnecessary diversion which has cost us billions of dollars and thousands of American lives FOR NOTHING!

 

[Jon]

so it doesn't even phase you that Obama was RIGHT? all you focus on is a bunch of fucking LIES?

No, it doesn't phase me that he was RIGHT, because he was WRONG in his reasoning. Opposing all war does not mean you're a genius for opposing a bad war.

 

[busara]

I have no problem with being a pacifist, since I am one myself but I don't think I've ever heard him say he wouldn't take our forces to war in Afghanistan to fight the war on terror, have you? Has he not said the war in Iraq deverted us from our REAL mission, the war on Bin Laden and his operatives... Iraq was a worthless and unnecessary diversion which has cost us billions of dollars and thousands of American lives FOR NOTHING!

for nothing? what about liberty? freedom? oil? it was an investment for our future in the region. ........