Dear Senator Obama

First of all, let's get one thing clear right off the bat: You've had four debates with Senator Clinton, not twenty-one.

Okay, now that we've got that bit of accounting out of the way, I wanted to run something else by you and see what you thought.

Now, I totally understand what you mean when you say that you'd rather spend your time talking to the people of Indiana and North Carolina about what matters to you, rather than spending it in debate with your opponent. That's good for you and great for the people who are about to cast their primary votes. But here's the thing: That's exactly what Senator Clinton is proposing. It's win/win!

And really -- not to get too excited about this, but it really is very exciting -- it's even better than that. In the debates Senator Clinton is proposing, not only will you get to talk about what's important to you, but you'll also get to talk about what's important to Senator Clinton. And vice versa, too -- she'll have to talk about what's important to you! What could be better than that? In addition to highlighting your key areas of personal concern, you'll both be able to draw out those all-important differences between yourselves by having the other talk about those things where your degrees of interest and concern may not be at the same level.

Let's not forget, the President does have a lot of say in setting the agenda for his term in office, but he doesn't quite get to pick and choose every issue that will come to the forefront and be important to the country. So debates in general are a good thing, since they force candidates to talk about those things they may not feel the need to bring up in a speech, but which just may rear up once the election has passed. And these debates in particular are an even better thing, because not only can we, the voters, compare and contrast your answers to questions, but we get an even deeper insight into each candidate by seeing, side by side, which issues each candidate sees fit to bring up at all, whether because you think it's important or because you think it'll illustrate a key difference between the two of you.

So, Senator Obama, I really hope you take this letter to heart. I understand you may be growing weary of debates, but this is a totally new kind of debate in this race, and one which offers you exactly the opportunities you say you would like to move beyond debates in order to pursue! Please, accept Senator Clinton's invitation. We'll all be the richer and the wiser for it.

Comments

[Temira]

Interesting to know.