Republican Debate Co-Chair: No debate without McCain

[gemlake]

According to Frank Fahrenkopf, the Republican co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, if McCain chooses to not attend Friday's debate, it will be canceled.

From Salon:

"A common misconception is that the 90-minute debate would feature Obama, moderator Jim Lehrer and an empty chair if McCain clung to his resolve to stay in Washington. But such a scene -- frequently invoked by talk-radio hosts and bloggers -- is about the only thing guaranteed not to happen on Friday night. 'The law requires that there must be two candidates for a debate,' said Fahrenkopf, a former GOP national chairman, who helped establish the bipartisan debate commission in 1986. 'If we did anything else, we would be making an in-kind contribution to the Obama campaign.'"

So McCain gets to showboat and unilaterally determine the debate schedule? I wonder what the Democratic co-chair says about this. Obama should get 90 minutes, with or without McCain.

[grannylib]

1. Fuck McSame and his grandstanding and his gimmicks and his

stupid ploys.
Fuck him.
He doesn't have the balls to show? Fuck him.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. How much did the school spend preparing for this?

5 million?

[NYC_SKP]

7. 5.5 million...

First, of course, the school will have to wait and see if the debate takes place. On Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee John McCain said he would not participate unless Congress approved a bailout package for Wall Street by Friday. The Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement that it was "moving forward with its plan" for the debate. School officials said they were still prepared to host candidates McCain and Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

"The chancellor just said, 'We've been ready for the debate, and we're still ready,' " said Curtis Wilkie, a journalism instructor who helped bring the event to the school.

The university lobbied hard and has spent $5.5 million to prepare. Wilkie, an Ole Miss graduate, said it would be the first time since the 1962 riot that so many reporters would be paying attention to his alma mater. As a result, he said, it would be "the most positive event that's taken place in my lifetime" for Ole Miss.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-olemiss25-2008sep25,0,3741387.story

[ContinentalOp]

16. Pfft, big deal.

Cindy can cut them a check.

[JeffR]

3. Fahrenkopf 451

Let them talk. They can stuff it sideways.

[tinrobot]

4. Invite Bob Barr then.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. According to another recent post, an Obama town-hall meeting would not require equal time

for the other candidate under FEC rules, and Obama has no cap on contributions.

So what's to stop Obama from holding a Town Hall meeting if McPOW does not show up in Oxford tonight?

At worst, the FEC might make Obama contribute a few million to the Commission. Would that be such a bad thing for his campaign?

[NYC_SKP]

6. So says Frank Fahrenkopf, the Republican.

Who has no power, I repeat, no power over the owners and operators of the venue, the media, or any free citizen who may decide to appear at the venue.

"Less than two hours later, Barack Obama delivered his answer: on to Oxford. Speaking to reporters at an impromptu Florida press conference, Obama said that if all senators needed to be in Washington for the interim, "We've both got big planes. We've painted our slogans on the sides of them. They can get us from Washington, D.C., to Mississippi fairly quickly."
The Commission on Presidential Debates joined in the fray by promptly issuing a statement declaring that it "was moving forward with its plan for the first presidential debate."

[XOKCowboy]

14. He's right. There will be no debate without McNuts...

but he has absolutely no say about Obama taking the stage and juggling for 90 minutes if he wants to. The infrastructure is in place for a major media event and both were invited. I'm glad Obama pointed out that they both had fast jet planes. He should have reminded people that they have BlackBerrys also. :)

[Window]

8. F/U john mccain.

[Window]

9. F/U john mccain.

[GrizzlyMan]

10. Now McCain has 3 ways to fuck himself

1-Don't debate, look like a coward.

2-Cave and go to the debate.

3-Be the guy who is responsible for cancelling the show 100 million people have been eagerly anticpiating. I would imagine there will be a lot of crab dip and buffalo wings wasted at various watch parties throughout the country. People will hate him.

[NYC Liberal]

11. As someone else said above, get Bob Barr.

There are your two candidates. McCain can choose to take part or not -- his choice.

[SemperEadem]

13. Or Ron Paul

he hasn't conceded yet... nor has he released his delegates.

[SemperEadem]

12. so this will be a town hall meeting or one on one interview with Jim Lehrer

it doesn't even need to be a debate, so go fuck yourself, frank. This ain't going to be cancelled, even if Obama has to put up a pup tent, use a flashlight and a megaphone in the parking lot. This joint's gonna happen.

[NYC_SKP]

15. Joe Biden could come, too. It's wide open, I'm looking forward to it.

Potentially, John McCain just gave us a huge, huge, gift.

And you just know Obama's people are working on it right now, right this minute!

[TexasObserver]

17. Make the GOP stop it. Make them show up with a court order.

[patomime]

18. let 'em do...

what they do. Either way, Johnny will not be there.