Posted on 09/30/2004 10:10:14 AM PDT by rumrunner
DJ Kerry Team Wants Debate Lecterns Free Of Timing Lights
09/30/2004
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP)--Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign demanded Thursday that the lights signaling when a speaker's time has expired during debates with President George W. Bush be removed from the lecterns because they are distracting, but the commission hosting the debates refused.
An angry exchange between representatives of the Kerry campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates took place just hours before the candidates were to meet at the University of Miami for the first of three debates, The Associated Press learned. Kerry's team threatened to remove the lights when they visit the debate site with the candidate later in the day.
"We'll bring a screwdriver," said a Kerry aide familiar with what several people called an angry exchange. The commission did not return a call seeking comment.
The commission placed the lights on the lecterns in clear view of the television audience and those in the auditorium. An agreement between the Kerry and Bush campaigns specified that timing lights "shall be placed such that they are visible to the debate audiences and television viewers."
However, Kerry's team contended that the agreement doesn't specifically say where the lights should be placed, and it said putting them on the lecterns creates a distraction. The Bush team pushed for the lights in negotiations with Kerry advisers.
The commission is a nonprofit and nonpartisan corporation that has sponsored all the presidential debates since 1988.
I don't know if I'm even going to watch tonight. I don't think I can stomach hearing Kerry for a minute, let alone over an hour. Besides, my mind is definitely made up.
Isn't ESPN showing a good football game or something?
I believe it was algore who kept running over his time in the last debates but because there were no obvious signals few people noticed.
This time it will be quite clear that Kerry is babbling on and on.
I hope the people running the debates bring some extra lights!
Maybe that light will be "accidentally" be knocked over and broken.
Would you honestly be surprised?
Bush Speak: Thats BullS***.
Kerry Speak: "That is a simple and plenastic cycle of oratorical sonorosity, circumscribing an atom of ideolity and bathed in a sea of verbal profundity".
Pitt at UConn on the Deuce and Navy at Air Force on ESPN.
I just heard the commission denied the request.
Seems the Kerry team said they would bring screwdrivers to the debaste!!!!!!! EGAD! I would love it if they did.
Good luck trying to snatch it out of TerAYza's hand. I don't think she's had her shots, recently.
A refreshing change, that. Normally, they're more given to box cutters.
GI ping
Kerry Speak: "That is a simple and plenastic cycle of oratorical sonorosity, circumscribing an atom of ideolity and bathed in a sea of verbal profundity".
LMAO!
Heh, I think you've got an excellent idea there!
Let Kerry's people take the lights off Kerry's lectern, and leave them on Bush's.
The message the public will get: Kerry is a typical elitist. Thinks he's so special, the rules shouldn't apply to him.
Sounds like then-Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling taking a bat to the umpire-cams last season. That would be entertaining. Can I watch?
Oh:
WAH!
Yeah, baby--the rules don't apply to us!
I'm surprised that Kerry's thugs didn't threaten to bring the gun given illegally to Kerry.
Nuance can't be done in two minutes.
I bet you are right...it was reported earlier that Kerry has been practicing on keepng his answers short and on point.
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