Friday, April 18, 2008
ABC's Terrible Debate
On Wednesday, April 16, 2008, the two leading Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama held a debate moderated by ABC's Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. This was easily the worst debate I have seen in this election cycle. Huffingtonpost called it the "gotcha debate." Read the story here. The first half of the debate was full of petty criticisms of personal misstatements, questions of guilt by association, and other petty "distractions" to quote one of the moderators of the debate. In such an important time in such a crucial election, why were such distractions given so much focus? We are at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, have top officials in the government admitting to have authorized torture, we have a housing, credit and energy crisis, millions without health care, U.S. paid mercenaries who are not subject to any law killing civilians in Iraq, billions of dollars wasted or lost in Iraq, and many many other pressing problems. Instead of concentrating on these vitally important questions, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos decided to concentrate of the HRC's multiple misstatements regarding snipers in Bosnia and Obama not always wearing a flag pin. Absolutely ridiculous. I hate to be so critical of George Stephanopoulos since I met him, during Bill Clinton's first run for the presidency in 1992 and know him to be very intelligent and personable. But this was a terrible excuse of moderating. As Keith Oblberman pointed out today, some of the questions posed by Stephanopoulos came from Sean Hannity of Fox News infamy. That showed. This terrible excuse for a debate probably will mark the end of the debates between Obama and Clinton. If this is to be the way future debates were to be held - that is certainly a good thing.
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About Me
- Matt
- Lima, Ohio, United States
- I was born and raised in Ohio. I am a lifelong Catholic Christian who has always been interested in the big questions of life. I have a passion for learning especially Philosophy, Science, Religion, History and Culture. I graduated from the University of Toledo in 2001 with a B.A. in International Relations. I married my soul-mate, Jen in 2001 and we moved to rural Tanigumi-mura Japan where we taught English for 3 years. We moved to California and lived in San Francisco and the Bay Area for 4 years. Tired of sitting on the sidelines, I began volunteering for the Barack Obama campaign in March of 2007 and was eventually hired as a Field Organizer. Through the Obama campaign, I found my calling and moved back to Ohio to continue organizing. In 2009 I helped the field operations of the Keith Wilkowski for Mayor of Toledo race. After that, I was hired as a Regional Field Director for 15 northwestern and north central Ohio counties for the 2010 Democratic Coordinated Campaign. Jen and I are continuing to volunteer as we wait for the next organizing opportunity to present itself.
2 comments:
What did this article have to do with "Christian Philosophy". Whats wrong with Sean Hannity he just gives back what most nasty liberals hand out each day.
Think over this: Liberals believe in killing babies. Liberals believe in free sex. Liberals are passing laws to take down family units and raising up homosexual relationships?
Obviously you have never read your bible which condems all thse acts.
Christian Philosopher???????
While I do believe that all things are ultimately related, this posting had very little to do with Christian Philosophy per say. Perhaps you were expecting something else given the name of my blog. The title of the blog is admittedly a bit presumptuous, but it is intended to give you a sense of who I am rather than necessarily a description of the subject matter. I am a Christian, I am an amateur philosopher and I am a political activist. So while I may have occasion to write Christian Philosophy from time to time, not all of my postings are of such subject matter.
On to Sean Hannity: Perhaps nasty conservatives are a solution for nasty liberals but I think that strongly entrenched political views (and one must admit Sean Hannity does have a strong conservative political orientation) should not play a prominent part in a media hosted political debate. Sean Hanniity seems obsessed with tenuous relationships rather than core political policies and the reasons candidates support them. This was reflected in ABC's poor debate.
OK, I thought it over. My response:
I am a Liberal
I do not believe in killing babies (I am opposed to abortion and infanticide)
Ergo not all Liberals believe in killing babies.
QED
Now consider this - in regard to your comment and then again in regard to your opposition to freedom for homosexuals:
'Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you.
Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own?
And how dare you say to your brother, "Let me take that splinter out of your eye," when, look, there is a great log in your own?"
Matthew 7:1-4
The first was Philosophy and the Second Christianity. "Christian Philosopher ?" I aspire to be such.
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