Obama Ducks North Carolina Debate

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Two mutually reinforcing theories on why Obama cancelled a debate next Sunday with Hillary Clinton: one, he is going to win North Carolina anyway, so why give the desperate Hillary a shot at him, and two, he is afraid of another dismal performance.

There is plausible deniability here, because normally you would expect Obama to turn down a debate when victory is a foregone conclusion, as it was last February when Obama refused a debate in Wisconsin.

Now that the focus is on Obama’s debating skills or lack thereof however, it feels a bit different. Shouldn’t Obama get back on that horse to prove that his poor performance in Pennsylvania was a fluke? Isn’t he running a risk of confirming insinuations that he is indeed a wimp?

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, because if he does debate Hillary, he is also running the risk of proving again that his only real skill is reading prepared text from a teleprompter.

Crossposted from Ken McCracken

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12 Responses to “Obama Ducks North Carolina Debate”

  1. likwidshoe on April 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am

    Obama is an umm good umm speaker when he is ehh tethered to an umm teleprompter.

    *written in the style of Obama’s speech when he is not in front of a teleprompter.

  2. Hannitized on April 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm

    …because if he does debate Hillary, he is also running the risk of proving again that his only real skill is reading prepared text from a teleprompter.

    Of all the presidential candidates, which one would you say is the best speaker?

    This idea that Obama is not a good speaker, is a bit kooky.

  3. proof_positive on April 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    We are asked to simultaneously believe that Obama is smart enough and perceptive enough to be president on the one hand, and on the other that Obama was completely ignorant of the political and social views of people he worked with and went to church with for years

    It’s a smart and perceptive kind of ignorance…

  4. likwidshoe on April 27th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    I am disappointed in Obama because I thought he was about fighting the political machine

    The guy is a Marxist which means that he is the political machine.

  5. Wing Chun Geologist on April 21st, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, because if he does debate Hillary, he is also running the risk of proving again that his only real skill is reading prepared text from a teleprompter.

    Up to this point the media has been in the tank for the Big O. But in the last debate he got a taste of what real candidates get treated like. He didn’t like it. So he’s going back to his canned speach in front of adoring minions.

  6. i approve this message on April 27th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

    Obama should debate. He only debated Hillary 1 on 1 four times. In not doing so he looks weak and cowardly. I voted for Obama back in February when I thought he was offering a new kind of politics. Over the last two months I have seen him engage in the same dirty tactics he once condemned. I am disappointed in Obama because I thought he was about fighting the political machine, not running away from it.

  7. proof_positive on April 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm

    Turkey Chicken, Ducks Debate.
    (Waiting for silly goose Hannitized to cry “Fowl”!)

  8. Wing Chun Geologist on April 22nd, 2008 at 3:38 am

    Of all the presidential candidates, which one would you say is the best speaker?

    Hillary is best when talking about policy.

    McCain is best when answering the questions from the media.

    Obama is best when giving a canned speach in front of people who think he’s the second comming.

  9. poetryman69 on April 22nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    We are asked to simultaneously believe that Obama is smart enough and perceptive enough to be president on the one hand, and on the other that Obama was completely ignorant of the political and social views of people he worked with and went to church with for years. Both these things cannot be true.

  10. dougee on April 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 am

    This idea that Obama is not a good speaker, is a bit kooky.

    So he is just a coward who won’t face Clinton in a debate?

  11. Bat One on April 22nd, 2008 at 2:37 am

    Is it possible that North Carolin is one of those states where a substantial portion of the population is embittered by their economic circumstances and “clinging” to guns and God out of resentment against leftwing elitists?

    Or may they’s jist not allowin’ no teleprompters in North Carolina.

  12. robert108 on April 28th, 2008 at 12:33 am

    likwid: Great point; to be more precise, he is a member of a political machine in the tradition of Saul Alinsky, a well-known Marxist organizer.

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