McCain is going to the debate

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain will attend the presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., this evening as Congress continues to work toward a $700 billion financial bailout plan.

"Everything is proceeding as planned," said Scott Warner, spokesman for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which will oversee the debate at the University of Mississippi tonight. "Nothing changes: the format is exactly the same, everything is exactly the same."

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Morning Links: Tick-tock, tick-tock

That's the sound of time slowly crawling toward the Ole Miss debate/non-debate, where we could see an actual exchange between John McCain and Barack Obama, or we could see Obama get the greatest free advertising ever. McCain seems closer to attending, even if the bailout plans are still being hammered out. The CPD says they should know by noon; the drop dead time is 5 p.m.

If Obama shows up alone and proceeds with a town hall format, that does two things to the Belmont debate: 1. It presumably increases its relevance given that it would become the first actual presidential debate (assuming both men attend that one), but 2. It somewhat decreases the appeal of the town hall format, because voters now will have seen both candidates, albeit separately, in a town hall setting.

And of course, if everything does go down as originally scheduled, how prepared will the candidates be after this week's hoopla?

Tick-tock, tick-tock ...

(Photo credit: Ron Edmonds/Associated Press)

Just when Ole Miss began to breathe ...

... the politicians became politicians again. What does the latest bailout impasse mean for tomorrow's scheduled debate? Apparently nothing new. We'll see if John McCain shows up in Oxford, or if Barack Obama gets some town-hall practice.

Programming note: Tomorrow's posts may be light as I work on a story for the dead-tree edition. Of course, if McCain appears on Rachel Ray, all bets are off.

Seigenthalers to discuss media ethics

It looks like tomorrow’s debate at Ole Miss will proceed as scheduled, as will a discussion headed by Tennessean publisher emeritus John Seigenthaler and son John Seigenthaler Jr. The two will discuss ethics and the media’s coverage of the election at Belmont Friday morning.

Seigenthaler, who covered the John F. Kennedy campaign in 1960 before going to work for the Kennedy administration, said he expects to discuss both the topics covered so far to the coverage itself, especially on the Internet.

“Our most recent poll showed that 17 percent of the public says they get most of their news from online … and in the 18-35 group I’m sure it’s going to be significantly higher than that,” Seigenthaler said. “The emergence of young voters in this election, I think, is a direct result of their online communication.”

The actual turnout of those young voters, Seigenthaler said, hinges on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s appeal to first-time voters and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s ability to mobilize young evangelicals.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 10 a.m. in the Frist Lecture Hall on the fourth floor of the Gordon E. Inman Center. Seigenthaler will later be at Shamblin Theatre at Lipscomb University for the school’s Ole Miss debate watch party.

Morning Links: Free Sarah Palin!

Looks like David Kernell dodged his first bullet when he wasn't indicted by a federal grand jury over accusations that he accessed Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal e-mail. But he's not in the clear yet.

And neither is Palin, if CNN's Campbell Brown has anything to do about it. Brown called McCain out last night for Palin's insulation from reporters. Brown tells McCain's campaign to free Palin from the "chauvinistic chains you're binding her with." I saw Brown's manifesto while at dinner, and even with the TV muted I could tell she was hacked off.

Also:

The daily poll roundup has Obama ahead nationally, but the battleground states are still predictably close.

Joe Biden maybe kinda sorta mixes up Depression-era presidents.

Hey look, another "new Ole Miss" story! I won't say I told you so ... but I told you so.

(Photo credit: Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press)

Morning Links: Looking to Oxford

With the Ole Miss debate a mere four days away, it looks like people (read: national media) are starting to pay more attention to the events and the candidates' strategies for them. Most interesting: an agreement by both parties to rein in the vice-presidential debate for fear that one candidate may look unprepared and the other might say something regrettable (I think you can guess which is which).

Also:
The Wall Street Journal fires off the first of what will probably be many "the new Ole Miss" stories.
That move by the candidates to put foreign policy first? Might not look so great as the economy tanks.
Obama's staff has pulled out of North Dakota to focus on Minnesota and Wisconsin, which the campaign sees as battleground states (and probably because they each have three times as many electoral votes as N.D.).

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In other political news, looks like the FBI is getting serious about the Palin e-mail "hacker" (although he's really just good at answering her e-mail password questions), visiting his apartment and questioning his roommates. Something tells me this one could go for a while.

And finally, what, my friends, would a Monday post be without an SNL clip?

Ole Miss: "We're ready to go"

Perhaps the easiest way to predict what Belmont can expect during the final month of debate setup is to look at the school that’s hosting the first debate: the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss is a mere 17 days away from hosting the presidential debate on national security and foreign policy, and the school says it’s ready to go.

“It looks good, if we can just get some good weather in here now,” said Andrew Mullins, executive director to the chancellor.

Weather delays caused problems in setting up the school’s media tent, a process Belmont started yesterday. Ole Miss received so much rain that the pad to be used for the tent floor had to be taken up, and the school had to re-sod the area.

Today at Belmont crews are placing metal beams on the pad they put down yesterday, but nothing has gone vertical yet.

Ole Miss also has an interesting twist to housing the media: Oxford residents are offering condos and private residences for rent during the debate, due to a lack of hotel rooms in the immediate area. There are enough hotels within a 60-mile radius, Mullins said, but some are choosing to stick closer.

As of last Wednesday, at least 11 condos had been rented out, Mullins said.

“We still have quite a few properties waiting for folks to rent them, and there’s still quite a few hotel rooms that are in the 60-mile radius,” Mullins said. “They’re going out pretty fast in some of these small towns close by.”

One final note: If the topic of the debate looks different, that’s because it is. The debate, which was initially planned to focus on domestic policy, was changed after the McCain and Obama campaigns requested to speak on foreign policy instead. Mullins said the request came after the Russian invasion of Georgia began in early August.

The Oct. 15 debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., will now be on domestic policy.

The First Debate: Whose Logo Will Capture America's Heart and Eyeballs?

So I thought we could get some friendly competition (read: shameless, cutthroat argument) started among the debate sites by introducing our first debate question: Which school's debate logo is the best? Now, "best" could mean anything by most patriotic to most pleasing to high-minded media outlets who like to pontificate about such things. Below are the logos, in chronological order of the debates, with careful, thoughtful analysis attached:

The University of Mississippi (Sept. 26):




Ole Miss does a fine job of incorporating the school's logo representing The Lyceum, the oldest building on campus (or so says Wikipedia). It switches the colors, however, turning the logo from red to blue. Hints of an Obama victory? Not likely! Also, I'm not sure what the four stars represent: The four debates? The four years in a presidential term? The four S's and four I's in "Mississippi"? The school should have to answer these tough questions! They probably won't, though, given that I'm close to violating their sunshine-and-rainbows policy that states, "logos provided should only be used to reflect a positive image of The University of Mississippi® Presidential Debate." Yeesh, thanks for the ringing endorsement of free speech regarding a debate.

Washington University in St. Louis (VP debate, Oct. 2):
See below.

Belmont University (Oct. 7):



By far the most stately of the logos, Belmont means business (and as we know, presidential campaigns are made of serious stuff!). Points to the attempt to make the flag image actually look like the real thing, but negative points for 15 1/2 stripes! Are they trying to give a preview of what the flag would have looked like if the Union had stopped at Tennessee (and only half, at that!)? However, points reinstated for using three stars, an obvious homage to the state flag and our three grand divisions. Or maybe it's referring to the third debate. At least it makes sense -- and is easily available to download, unlike WUSL's rendition, which looks distinctly Puerto Rican.

Hofstra University (Oct. 15):



Now here's a mind-boggler: The red is on the left, and the blue is on the right. It doesn't match the flag, it doesn't adhere to conventional party-color associations -- it's truly independent! Also, note how the star subtly points to the "Presidential Debate" line, serving as a helpful guide to reading left-to-right. Thanks, institution of higher education! I would say, however, that placing your big-time campus event in lower-case letters might not be the best idea ... unless you're trying to say that the event is secondary to the issues discussed ... man, this is deeper than I thought.

So there it is: It's up to you, dear readers, to decide which graphic design movement you will support! Don't take your position lightly -- after all, we've argued vehemently over less!