Monday, June 9, 2008

The Ballpark Debates

Splice Today's Russ Smith has a pretty fabulous idea for the fall campaign: Dispense with formal debates, contrived town hall meetings, and the battle of the sound bites and do something a bit more novel:

The following is a pipedream, but what I think would really be radical in presidential politics is if the two of them met five times, before the national conventions, at different baseball stadiums in mutually-agreed upon cities. No press allowed, no photo-ops, just Obama and McCain sitting in a skybox, and taking in games, gabbing about baseball or whatever else comes to mind.

Every four years editorialists natter on about the importance of a “civil” campaign, and this is one way to further that goal. The two senators don’t know each other well, but as any baseball fan can tell you, during the course of a game two acquaintances can, in an isolated setting, forge a friendship while discussing and debating America’s favorite sport. After these three-hour—remaining for all nine innings would be a condition—I find it hard to believe they’d allow their strategists to embark on what could be the nastiest presidential race since, well, 2004.
As has been noted, McCain is a DBacks guy, and Obama is a White Sox fan. Though neither of those teams are my favorites for the World Series this year, they could each make it. If they do, maybe they could have a final face-off right before the election. Ozzie Guillen to moderate, of course.

1 comment:

Phil said...
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