Posted on 09/30/2004 11:24:42 AM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
Democratic candidate John Kerry's campaign demanded Thursday that the lights signaling when a speaker's time has expired during debates with President 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 Kerry 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.
Kerry's New Position Statement on the Lights: "We're certainly in favor of the lights, but not the current implementation of the lights. If we'd known they were going to f*** up the implementation of the lights so badly, we never would've voted for the lights."
LOL!
Kerry thinks that we're color blind.
He now thinks that Americans are also deaf and that none of his Flip Flops was ever heard.
...especially glowing teeth.
The audience is going to have to be warned to turn away if Lurch smiles or they will be blinded.
It's good potato vodka for minimum hangover. And I won't really drink it all ;) I'll just drink until Kerry makes sense.
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