Questions in town hall debate will be chosen by the moderators

[Eric J in MN]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040921/ap_on_el_pr/presidential_debates
The first debate will be Sept. 30 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. The second, a town-hall style format, will be Oct. 8 at Washington University in St. Louis, and the third will beheld Oct. 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe.
...
For the town-hall debate, members of the audience who want to ask questions must submit them in advance to the moderator for screening.

[mconvente]

1. wtf?

That is so stupid. I mean I guess it could help if it prevents some psycho from bullshitting on Kerry. But I don't know. Seems like a blatant violation of true democracy to me.

[meisje]

3. They will then be submitted to Rove and on to the moderator!!

[Pirate Smile]

2. That is the concession the Bushies had to get or they wont

play.

Regular people are SCARY!

[xray s]

4. a screened audience asking screened questions

probably gonna have a 30 second delay to boot. What a joke

[liveoaktx]

5. So who is the moderator? Someone from Washington U?

[whalerider55]

7. a few suggested moderators...

pee wee herman

oliver stone

jimmy breslin

david crosby

queen elizabeth

rufous the wonder pyp (a ringer- he's my dog, and he'd pee on the shrub)

whalerider55

[Hand]

8. Unfortunately....

It's far worse--right now it's Charles Gibson of Good Morning America. A true lightweight; he's the one who gave Kerry a whole raft of BS about which medals he threw when, how, etc., etc. Quite the asshole's asshole.

He could also be the poster boy for the famous Jon Stewart remark: "This is what happens to your hair when you won't let gay people touch it!"

:puke:

[zulchzulu]

6. Kerry should mention that throughout the debate

..say something like "President Bush wanted to have your questions screened to control the message of you, the undecidied voter" or "since a loyalty oath could not be furnished in this democratic debate..."

All Flail The Chimp

[Roland99]

9. Audience members picked by GALLUP???

WTF??


The two campaigns debated over the format of the town-hall style session.


The final agreement calls for a live audience of between 100 and 150 people who describe themselves as likely voters and are either "soft" Bush supporters or "soft" Kerry supporters — with an equal number from each group. Audience members will be selected by the Gallup organization.


Why not just put some GOP hacks in the audience??

[incapsulated]

10. What Bullshit

But I shouldn't be surprised.

Does Bush get to look at the questions and have Karl write his "spontaneous" response to them beforehand, as well?

:puke:

[Roland99]

11. Well...you have to consider Cheney will be feeding him answers remotely

[liberal N proud]

12. audience who want to ask questions must submit them in advance

This will allow Carl Rove to provide answeres to shrub so he won't make a true ass out of himself.
These should be unscripted questions. That would allow us to see the real man in front of the puppeter