The audience present at this 'debate' is creepy

[Mind_your_head]

There are somewhere between 54-100 people there by my count. 6 sections of 9 - 24 in each section.

I'm surprised how small this group is. Of whom is it comprised? How were they chosen?

Without saying too much more, it doesn't seem to *my eyes* that this group is respresentative of the demographics of America.

Lots of the audience members seem like their eyes have "glazed over" already.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but this audience/this venue/this setting/something is just giving me a *creepy* feeling.

[stray cat]

1. I think they were forbidden to respond in any way

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. What gets me

is that McCain gets black questioners and Obama gets white ones.

[OhioChick]

3. I agree...

They're in a trance. No one seems to be average middle class or at the poverty level.

[Poll_Blind]

4. I'm not watching, but listening I was sensing that something was a little "off".

Nothing big, and there are still questions to go. But I sort of agree, and I'm just listening in.

PB

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. It's supposed to be an audience of 100 people who are fence sitters

And, demographics...

It's Nashville, TN...hardly a cross-section of the many cultures that comprise America

[arcadian]

9. Nashville is kind of weird, very liberal.

It's like a blue chunk of the midwest floated down from the great lakes and landed in the middle of hill-billy heaven.

[G_j]

14. they're sore

I suppose,

[Wiley50]

6. This is in TN, at Belmont, a Southern Baptist college. Get it? I do. I live here. n/t

[RainDog]

12. you must be one of those whole foods liberals!

I bet you even drink beer at honky tonks like The Exit/In - if it even exists anymore.

[Wiley50]

16. Well, I still drink beer

but mostly at home anymore

i remember the Exit/In and even knew Owsley, the guy who built it

But I haven't been down in that area in years

[sixmile]

7. They're "undecided" what do you expect?

They haven't been paying attention for years. Do you think they will now?!

[arcadian]

8. It sounds like they are in a morgue.

Listening to radio. McCain just cracked a joke about his hair to dead air, I half expected some sitcom canned laughter.

[Mind_your_head]

13. Yes. *If* the audience was instructed not to 'react' in any way,

(as a poster upthread suggested) then why bother even BEING there?

They're like a bunch of mannequins! They're not moving/shuffling/smiling/frowning .... nothing!

Just put a bunch of mannequins in those chairs - it's not normal human behavior, even if they are 'undecided'.

[RainDog]

10. LOL. dawn of the dead

the venue is Belmont College. Belmont is a Southern Baptist-founded college that has been in existence for a long time. There are a few religious colleges in Nashville. David Lipscomb, Belmont, Treveca are ones I remember - they're from the Church of Christ, Southern Baptists and Nazarenes, respectively.

Nashville is also home to Fisk University and Tennessee State University. Fisk was home of the Jubilee Singers - TSU was founded during Reconstruction to make college available to people of all races. It's also the home to Vanderbilt U. which is mostly known for its medical center, tho it's considered a good U. - and Vanderbilt incorporated George Peabody College for Teachers a while back, since they were side-by-side.

Even when Nashville was a medium-sized city, it was home to at least 6 colleges and one university.

I also wondered how the make up of the audience was decided. The arena and area are definitely red-state - tho Nashville has a lot of liberals - but there are lots more churches than just about anything in Nashville, or it used to seem that way. A church on every corner is the way it used to be described. I don't live there anymore but I do have relatives that live there - we don't talk about politics anymore, just to keep peace. Actually, we don't talk about much anymore, but we love each other because -- we love each other.

[hendo]

11. They are all aliens

supposedly they are undecided voters from Nashville. Apparently people in Nashville just have that odd haunted look to them.

[eilen]

15. Maybe they finally had gas delivered to their stations

and have been able to venture out of their homes.

I have family down there too. They are all Dems. Nashville is more cosmopolitan than any other city in TN.

Lots of music business people and transplants from the West Coast and Midwest.

I'm surprised they didn't have this at TSU. My sister took a class with Al Gore there. Mom says the C o Cer's (Church of Christ) are worse than the Southern Baptists.

They get lots of protesters in Downtown Nashville as it is the capital, most recently against the bailout. They really protested a proposed income tax deal that would eliminate the sales tax on food and only affect higher earners. Those Tennesseans love their regressive taxes. The income tax proposal did not pass. Then they shut down new applicants to TennCare before the year was half over as they ran out of the money to fund it.

[dflprincess]

17. But it is interesting how the Obamas are still there working the crowd

and the people there seem to be loving it. Most of them are sitting there waiting for the next-first-couple to get around to them.

McCain must have left because there have been no shots of him.