Time for Cross-Party Debates?
by Patrick Ruffini :: June 7th, 2007 8:10 pmWant to raise your profile and score points in this campaign? Then single out another candidate for attack across party lines. It’s partly the nature of the wide open race on both sides, but this cycle has seen A LOT more tactical volleys fired across party lines to shore up support inside one own party. Speaking as a Republican voter, I like this. It lets the candidates show some fight without having to break the Eleventh Commandment as much.
Marc Ambinder has a piece up about how John Edwards has provoked a serious cross-party confrontation by effectively calling for an end to the War on Terror and attacking the Republican candidates by name. Giuliani’s best moments in debate have come when turning his sights on the Democrats. Earlier, John McCain gave Barack Obama some “flak” over his war funding vote, with Mitt Romney jumping in too.
With candidates trying to shore up their general election creds, who will be the first to challenge a debate across party lines this year? (And no, I don’t mean second tier snoozefests on Meet the Press.) It would be a risky move, and a gutsy one. Think of the huge earned media moment it would be, giving us the excitement of a general election slapdown a year early. It would be a make or break moment for a candidate a few points back looking to roll the dice. If you were looking to mess with the other party’s frontrunner by elevating a top-tier challenger, this would do it. And it would teach the voters vastly more about those candidates than the current debates joint appearances can.
Tagged: 2008 
debates john edwards
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