Gloucester Daily Times wants more than a token debate:
Edward O’Reilly, the Gloucester lawyer who’s running against U.S. Sen. John Kerry in the Sept. 16 Democratic primary, wants two more debates with his opponent. Don’t hold your breath.
One would think Kerry would be eager to debate O’Reilly, to meet his questions head-on and to respond to the challenges of his voting record. One would be wrong.
The only public confrontation between Kerry and O’Reilly was aired on WBZ-TV-4 Sunday morning. If you didn’t see it, you’re in the majority – and this “debate” scarcely merited the name. It was recorded Friday morning in a television studio. There was no audience. It lasted a mere half-hour.
Please share widely!
I think most will agree. But I just have to say that Ed O’Reilly repeating Republican talking points does no one any good. He had an opportunity last week to have a more substantive debate and discuss why he was able to garner the votes he received to get on the ballot. There is after all a reason he got those votes. But after that episode, I don’t think that will be embraced.
The election is one week away and Senator Kerry is in DC because the Senate is in session. As to the quality of the debate that was done, Keller is by no means a Kerry supporter and he chose the questions. The fact is the interview is available on the internet and, if EOR really thinks it helps him, he can have his volunteers give people the web address where they can see it. (or put it on his web site and send people there.) Maybe had he agreed to meet with Kerry campaign manager earlier, there could have been a longer or more debates. It is also possible that there were few stations willing to give a longer slot to them.
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p>The fact is that EOR has worked for over a year full time to mobilize support and raise money. It is very clear that he has failed on this. He is not Ned Lamont and Kerry is not Leiberman. Lamont was able to raise money in the left blogospere. EOR pretty much outlasted his welcome on Daily Kos, where Lamont raised considerable money.
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p>In fact, the debate shows that EOR did not use the debate to really discuss issues, he used it to heckle Kerry. On the environmental issue, he never even answered the question on Capewind. Rather than use the vague second question to give a view of the key things he would like to work on as Senator, he said Kerry’s committee was unimportant. Kerry then used the time to give some of his accomplishments.
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p>I can not think of any primary election with this level of mismatch where there was more than one debate. I do know of some where there was none. I also do not think it is Kerry’s fault that EOR can not get sufficient viewership without him.
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p>You also need to consider EOR’s behavior, which has been rather uncivil. Raising the SBVT charges and agreeing with every right wing characterization of Kerry is NOT the action of an individual of good character. I realize that this is EOR’s home paper and the guys feel sorry for him, but notice the last paragraph. It asks whether Kerry will agree to a set of debates with the Republican – and there is no “if he wins”.
he’s asking for a 6 year contract extension from massachusetts voters who want to know where he stands on issues important to them. why is it such an imposition to mr. kerry to ask for more than 20 minutes of his precious time? if it makes it easier for him swallow, that works out to around 8 seconds per week of his term.
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p>the read-his-website/well-everybody-knows flip-off of kerry’s record may be fine salve for his blog-flacks, but doesn’t he owe any kind of explanation or outreach to the millions of people who have hired him to be their representative?
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He said he is doing that this weekend. He has answered questions one to one and he has answered questions when speaking before various crowds. In fact, the issue here is not the amount of time Kerry speaks to people in MA. but that he speak to MA with EOR included as part of a debate.
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p>What Kerry owes people is to do a good job. Today, he is in DC. this is the week that LIHEAP is being worked on and he should be there for that and to vote. I seriously think that is more important than being in MA to debate a vanity candidate.
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p>Kerry’s stands on every issue have been laid out in many many speeches. In fact he gave an excellent set of speeches in 2006 and 2007 at Faneuil Hall in Boston. All were well covered in the Boston Globe.
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p>There is no issue facing the country that is likely to come up in the Senate that I can think of where Kerry does not have a position that he has spoken of or written of. I seriously think he is in the position that there may not be a question that he was never asked.
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they should just google it, and stop bothering our senator with their pesky concerns?
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2007 was LAST year, and 2006 the year before it. I never said they should not “bother the Senator with pesky concerns”. If they have concerns, they should ask him about them. That is easier done at the events he’s had – look on the web site – there have been many events where he has talked to people who asked him questions.
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p>Not to mention NO MATTER WHAT STATE they lived in 2004 or if they were an ex-pat, he did run for President and was in MANY primary debates and 3 general election debates.
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p>Are you seriously saying that there are people who don’t know what his positions are AND did not attend the events that Kerry has had this year AND will not attend anything he is doing this weekend BUT would watch a debate with EOR. My guess is you want more visibility for EOR.
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p>I never said anything about “googling” the Senator’s positions.
of senator kerry in my town in years.
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p>ted, yes. but john, ummm . . . .
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p>please pass this along to him, if it would help.
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p>if he has 8 minutes in his rampant schedule to spare, that is.
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I do not work for him. I also assume that he knows exactly where it is and has very likely been there.
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p>I would suggest though that if it takes the Senator 8 minutes to go from Boston to Sommerville, it would take you 8 minutes to go the opposite way. He has been in Boston pretty often. So, if you had wanted to see him – say at his Faneuil Hall speeches, I doubt it would have taken more than a half an hour by public transportation.
but his party had just been driven off.
You weren’t looking when he held one of his very first Q&A events of this season for activists from towns around the area at the Mt. Vernon Restaurant early this year.
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p>Great questions from a varied selection of local officials, political activists and students and Kerry answered them all thoughtfully and thoroughly, including painting a very clear picture of just exactly how we CAN fix the health care system in this country. This is a public servant who pays attention to every detail and aims to move this nation in a progressive direction through his work in Congress.
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p>I hope someday you can put aside your hate and really pay attention to the hard work this senator does.
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p>Not true. O’Reilly has been clear on several occasions that he was willing to pay for almost his entire campaign so that he can spend time engaging voters, and not hitting up the rich for campaign funds. The communication I get from his campaign is very light on fundraising appeals.
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p>You have an argument to make about his failing to gain widespread support, but frankly O’Reilly isn’t trying to raise money (of course, neither is Kerry — he’s got all he needs leftover from his presidential run.
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p>PS: Have I mentioned how ridiculous it is that you won’t even bother to write out the name of your candidate’s opponent — what’s with the initials? If we can bother with the two capitals in McCain, we can bother with the fearsome apostrophe.
I have also used JK – and no one protested that. I am an exceeding bad typist.
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p>I read a few months ago that he said he was not spending time fund raising. He did have Act Blue accounts and at one point he seemed to be trying to raise money in the blogosphere.
I always thought abbreviating him to EOR was a subtle slam on him, given the similarity between “EOR” and “Eeyore”…
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p>What a ridiculous premise. One would certainly not think that Kerry would be eager to debate anyone. He’s the incumbent with a built-in pulpit from which to speak whenever he wants, as with all incumbents. He can get his message out without someone across the stage interrupting or disagreeing. “One would think” that Kerry should be eager to debate only if one were a moron.
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p>You have to love unsigned editorials. They’re so much easier to write than the kind you put your name on, and have to research and think about.
but what is in John Kerry’s political interest does not coincide with the interest of Democratic voters.
In this case, John Kerry’s political interest and the interest of Democratic voters are perfectly in sync. Kerry doesn’t have to get his message out; his message is out, based on his years in office, to anyone paying attention. Democratic voters can make an incredibly informed decision about whether Kerry meets or fails to meet their needs.
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p>As for O’Reilly, I agree that it’s in the Democratic voters’ best interests to find out what he stands for so that people can make an informed comparison between that and Kerry’s track record. But that’s O’Reilly’s job — it’s just not reasonable to ask Kerry to assist.
Would you say, b/c McCain and Obama have been in public eye, and their message is out to anyone paying attention, they should not debate?
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p>The point of any debate is to allow voters to hear those messages juxtaposed. Contrast helps voters. True in general elections. True in primaries.
First of all that’s the general election. Second, they both have decent chances of winning.
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p>The more comparable situation is HRC and Tasini – and there were NO debates. The Kerry team and the O’Reilly team met and they agreed on that debate. They debated. There is one week left, the Senator is in DC.
One 20 min debate, aired on Sun morn is a joke on the Democratic process.
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p>Kerry (or any elected official) owes the people more.
…proven he was serious was by making a reasonable request, not the 23 debate demand. That was just silly. I think today’s Globe editorial was pretty well right on. Vote for Kerry.
Although the mantra of the Democratic party this election cycle is CHANGE!!! ….somehow the SAME 10 entrenched career politicians from Massachusetts are and will be AGAIN sent to DC for the zillionth time.
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p>I guess I just don’t understand how you can have change when the same corrupt lifelong politicians from this one party State are sent AGAIN and again and again ad infinitum.
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p>I hold little hope for this State until some kind of term limits are enacted and NEW people are sent to actually CHANGE anything. Until then it’s business as usual for the likes of 24 year entrenched “Do you know who I am ?” John Kerry, who has yet to author, sponsor and pass a SINGLE bill in his 24 year tenure as Senator…..pathetic