Oct

10

2008

GraniteGrok and Blue Hampshire will NOT be announcing a Blogger Moderated Debate!

by Skip

Well, I had hoped to have been able to announce this with a more positive manner, but someone’s unwillingness to defend their ideas of governance has put a kibosh to this:

      Carol Shea-Porter    Debate picture   Jeb Bradley  The Left: Carol Shea-Porter (Democrat)                     The Right: Jeb Bradley (Republican)

This past Saturday during our radio show, Meet The New Press, we talked with Jeb Bradley about whether or not he was going to have debates with Carol-Shea Porter (as he did in 2006).  From that post:

Jeb brings up having a live Blogger Debate on GraniteGrok?  Skip goes further – how about a GraniteGrok / BlueHampshire moderated debate on on MTNP?  Jeb accepts! Jeb continues and talks about the rise and importance of the blogosphere on campaigning and political discourse. 

Now, Carol Shea-Porter has <NOT> agreed to the Debate!

We will <NOT> be live blogging the debate on both sites as well the live debate on Meet The New Press (Saturday mornings from 9 to 11am on WEMJ 1490 AM – Live streamed from GraniteGrok and BlueHampshire).

Format – tough questions but no sandbagging.  The bloggers (Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy from GraniteGrok.com, Dean Barker and Laura Clawson from BlueHampshire.com) will <NOT> be firing questions at both the debaters (and being bloggers, probably at each other as well!).  We are hoping that this format will keep each side "honest", because if one side "rachets up", so can the other.

We believe that bloggers will ask the questions that journalists won’t and being bloggers, we DEMAND answers – no question avoidance will be allowed by either side!

And, if Carol and Jeb want to turn the tables on the bloggers, well, I have a feeling that there will be no lack of discussion.

Alas and Alack!  Even though Jeb was gracious enough during the last election (i.e., 2006) to debate Carol as many times as she wanted (approx 11 times), she has deemed it unncessary to return the favor (in fact, my last emailed request (10/4) to her campaign manager, Pia Carusone, to check on the status of this debate went unanswered).

Well, I thank Jeb for his willingness to debate the ideas in the public arena, to Dean of Blue Hampshire for his willingness to help make NH Political Blogging history, and for Nassau Broadcasting for their offer to assist in this publicizing and broadcasting this effort.

You just have to wonder: Jeb was willing to put himself at the mercy of the Blue Hampshire bloggers who have excoriated him – what does Carol Shea-Porter have against Doug and I?

We can’t be THAT scary to Liberals…

 

…or are we?

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by Skip Murphy

Co-founder of GraniteGrok, my concern is around Individual Liberty and Freedom (and how Government is taking that away from us). My fight, from a Conservative (with small "L" libertarian leanings) and evangelical Christian perspective, is with the Progressives that are forcing a collectivized and secular humanistic future upon us. As TEA Party activist, citizen journalist (and pundit!), my goal is to use the New Media to advance the radical notions of America's Founders back into our culture again.

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Leave a Comment

  • mer

    Have the debate anyway. Let Dean ask Jeb the questions he wants to. It would just show that of the candidates at least one is not afraid to answer them. When Jeb is done answering a question, you can do the obligatory “and Ms Shea-Porter, how do you respond” give 12 seconds of dead silence “Thank you for your insight” and move to the next question.

  • Dean Barker

    Hi guys,
    Just to be clear, let me reiterate publicly what I said in private conversation with you earlier.
    While I think a New Media style debate would be neat-o, I was (and am) steadfast in that if it didn’t fit the schedules or strategies of either candidate, that would be fine by me. My goal is to utilize blogging to help progressives get elected, so if it’s not in the interest of the campaign of a progressive candidate to do it, I happily defer to that.
    And I’ll add this, with the caveat that it’s my own analysis and not inside info from either campaign:
    Both of our blogs represent audiences of high-information base voters. I can see why it would make sense, even so close to 11/4, for Bradley to want to debate in such a venue given the primary fight he had with Stephen. He’s got base voters to work on. Whereas Rep. Shea-Porter is, as is traditional for most incumbents and challengers at this time in the calendar, reaching out to wider audiences and demographics.
    I’m thinking that, for the future, this might be a great idea a lot earlier in the calendar for the 2010 cycle.

  • Chaz Proulx

    Skip
    Dean is right.
    As you and I discussed recently, this idea does have an interesting angle and I discussed it with Pia from that perspective.
    Plus you’re a good guy and despite our political differences we have a certain kinship as net-root activists.
    But by the time I heard about it, it was so late in the cycle that every available minute has to be dedicated to swing voters.
    I still applaud your efforts

  • mer

    By swing voters, you mean those who are registered undeclared here in NH? Well, I’m one of those. I’m also one of the people that Shea-Porter actually is supposed to represent. I think the idea has a better chance of reaching the exact people they want, because the alternative of the recorded phone calls every other night tends to annoy the hell out of people (like me) and make me vote “against”. Why not hook up with one of the local public access stations (like what Merrimack has) and get the debate televised at the same time?
    Dean, those high information voters are not only base. I am undeclared becasue neither party has done enough to earn my trust, my identification with them. It also gives me the opportunity to vote for the person I feel is most closely aligned with my views, regardless of their party. Isn’t that the way it should work, instead of having people blindly pulling the Blue or Red lever “because that’s what my daddy and his daddy did”?

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