25 Comments Add your own

• 1. Kaus  |  April 26th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

  Pat thinks asking questions about Obama’s Pastor are rediculous…but of course bowling and playing basketball are better barometers of Presidential Leadership?

• 2. ROTStar  |  April 26th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

  Pat, actually Newt Gingrich beat you by eight months in a letter to the presidential candidates themselves and again an LA Times editorial here:
  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gingrich23aug23,1,7101048.story

  How is this different? We are asking the candidates to throw out the rule book that has stifled political debate. Each party’s nominee would be expected to present and defend solutions in a one-on-one dialogue with his or her opponent. The moderator would only keep time and introduce topics.

  Fred Thompson was the first presidential candidate to mention it, I think, just a couple weeks after that.
  http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/012743.php

  Not Hillary’s idea, she got the letter from Newt. And while you might have thought of it independently you are in good company there with Newt Gingrich! Or does the thought of that scare you?
  David

• 3. ROTStar  |  April 26th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

  Achallenge arrived at the office of every presidential candidate about two weeks ago. It was a letter, signed by journalist Marvin Kalb and me, challenging each one, Republican and Democrat, to sign on for “Nine Nineties in Nine.” That is, if nominated, they would pledge to take part in nine 90-minute debates in the nine weeks leading up to election day.

  A little more from Newt’s idea.
  David

• 4. Menlo Bob  |  April 27th, 2008 at 12:39 am

  Douglas could beat Lincoln in both bowling and boilermakers. Something about body type that makes it work out that way. Lincoln was on to the Al Gore look with the beard, but before the weight gain. He was awkward like Gore but made more sense. Douglas was more of a Ted Kennedy prototype but lacked Kennedy’s drunk swimming skills. I’d say it would be a wash but that might cause heartburn in the Kopechne family.

• 5. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 8:40 am

  Bob: Lincoln didn’t have a beard during his debates with Douglas in 1858. He didn’t start growing one until October of 1860. As for bowling, Douglas looked like a bowling ball.

• 6. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 8:47 am

  ROTStar: My complaint that Hillary stole my idea was, of course, in jest. Over the years, the Lincoln-Douglas format has been suggested by plenty of people, including me on numerous occasions. My interest in the Lincoln-Douglas debates stems in great part from my having grown up in Freeport, where the most important of those debates was held.

• 7. Menlo Bob  |  April 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am

  Thanks for the tip on Lincoln’s beard. Tell me this; Do you think JFK used a beard to cover for his White House trysts? Of course that would only be to fool Jackie O since the reporters were in on the game.

• 8. Ms Rodham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am

  Mr. Applejack,

  I’m writing to thank you for your wonderful debating idea. Normally I would ignore ideas that flaunted racial or gender diversity, however, desperate times calls for desperate measures. You know as well as I that that Hyde Park half-honkie is a stiff. All I’ve gotta do is ask a few questions the press refuses to ask and stand back while he trips over his tongue.

  Incidently–after reading some of your recent posts about me, I’d have to put you in the category with Richard Mellon Scaife and Bill Clinton–guys who screw me over, but came around in the end.

  Well anyway, thanks for the tip–I owe you one.

  –HRC

• 9. hokumboy  |  April 27th, 2008 at 11:45 am

  What JFK’s affairs have to do with the Lincoln - Douglas Debates is beyond me. But,since you brought it up, Bob, would Ike have worn a wig to cover for his affair with his driver while he was General?

• 10. Kaus  |  April 27th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

  Since Obama will never accept the \"lincoln-stephenson\’ debate approach (which would be great to see), perhaps the next best idea is to have the \’All-Star\" approach. Fox News and MSNBC both put up their best hosts for a tag team approach….both asking blatantly far left or far right questions in a point-counterpoint slug fest.

• 11. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

  Bob: Now it can be told: I was JFK’s beard. He often told Jackie that he was getting together with me for bowling and beers; in reality, he was trysting like a madman. So, I’m a footnote in American history.

• 12. Kaus  |  April 27th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

  I can’t wait for Pat’s take on Obama on Fox today. Since he hasn’t posted anything yet, I just wanted to say…”hurry up Pat”. I like hearing your opinions.

• 13. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

  I didn’t see it, Kaus, and I haven’t read much about it yet. Apparently, it didn’t produce any really big news.

• 14. Ms Rodham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

  Hokumboy,

  It’s all part of the grand conspiracy that stretches from Lincoln to Tea Pot Dome to FDR to Kennedy to Clinton to Rove. Phew! It involves slavery, oil, Pearl Harbor, cattle futures and finally KKKarl Rove’s evil manipulations. Need I remind you that Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy, and Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln. I think KKKarl Rove also drives a gas guzzling Lincoln Navigator SUV.

• 15. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

  Yeah, and Kennedy was shot while riding in a Lincoln. Lincoln was shot in Ford’s theater, and Lincolns are made by Ford. The names Lincoln and Kennedy have the same number of letters. So do the names John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Are these mere coincidences? I think not. As you say, Bob, it’s all part of a grand conspiracy. The plan, as Gen. Jack Ripper warned, is to sap us of our precious bodily fluids.

• 16. Menlo Bob  |  April 27th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

  That and the pure military genius of Gen. Buck Turgeson.
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=2AfuRdwyPC4&feature=related

• 17. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

  By the way, Bob, a distant cousin of mine, actor Keenan Wynn, played the part of Col. Bat Guano in “Dr. Strangelove.” He’s the guy who warned the British officer that he would “have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company” for breaking into a vending machine to get change for a phone to call the president.

• 18. hokumboy  |  April 27th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

  Keenan Wynn?
  Hell, Pat, that makes you distantly related to Ed Wynn. Now, that’s somethin’ !!

• 19. Pat Cunningham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

  Yeah, of course, Ed was Keenan’s father. Frankly, I never cared for Ed’s comedy. Too vaudeville-like for my tastes. But I thought he did a good job in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” When I say the Wynns were distant cousins, I’m only going on what my late mother said. I’ve never traced the relationship myself. By the way, since this post has something to do with Lincoln, lemme lay this one on you: My paternal grandfather — my dad’s dad — was born during Lincoln’s presidency. So, I’m the grandson of a Lincoln contemporary, sort of. That makes me feel a lot older than I actually am. But it also indicates that we Cunninghams don’t study history so much as we just remember it.

• 20. hokumboy  |  April 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

  God,
  are we old!
  My grandfather was born in 1863. In New York City.
  I tell the kids that when they watch GANGS OF NEW YORK to look at it with the idea that those folks in the film could be our ancestors.
  I think the family history that’s a bit suspect is always more interesting than the verifiable stuff. Our family motto is “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”.

• 21. Ms Rodham  |  April 27th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

  You’re related to Bat Guano? Well that would seem to explain a few things.

• 22. hokumboy  |  April 28th, 2008 at 8:00 am

  Huh?
  Please excuse this old man for not quite getting that last comment.

• 23. hokumboy  |  April 28th, 2008 at 8:16 am

  Is it just me? Or is there something Schutzstaffel scary about this window sticker?
  http://www.ndptf.org/catalog/prod_NP223.cfm?series=0&brand=0

• 24. Pat Cunningham  |  April 28th, 2008 at 8:23 am

  Hoke: I think you meant for Comment No. 23 to go with the post about the National Day of Prayer. But you’re right, the sticker looks a little like a Swastika. As for your Comment No. 22 (in reply to Comment No. 21), see Comment No. 17. It’s getting a little complicated here, isn’t it?

• 25. hokumboy  |  April 28th, 2008 at 8:41 am

  Ok,
  I’m on track now. Monday morning with a good head cold can play havoc with the thought process. That, combined with the snow falling, is telling me I shouldn’t think of doing any gas or electrical work around the house today.

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