Rapid City Newspaper Challenges Daschle to Participate in Weekly Debates!

See this very important editorial in today's Rapid City Journal:

Our challenge: weekly debates

By the Journal Editorial Board

Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Thune is trying to turn the issue of debates with incumbent Sen. Tom Daschle into a big deal in this campaign. We think it should be.

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But setting aside their individual interests, we believe more debates would be good for voters, good for the campaign and, in the end, good for our entire political system.

Political campaigns have always been about manipulating reality - avoiding some truths while accentuating others - by opposing candidates. But now more than ever the major candidates rely on well-paid consultants, high-priced advertising blitzes and carefully scripted public appearances to highlight their strengths and camouflage their weaknesses.

We think it's time to abandon this tedious maze of manipulation and return to the territory of the truth. And we encourage Tom Daschle and John Thune to lead us there through a series of weekly debates between now and the election.

Further, we think the current format of debates - which are often just forums, where candidates respond to a series of fragmented questions from reporters or audience members, rather than squaring off against each other - should be thrown out. The Daschle-Thune debates should be fashioned, loosely, after the historic series of debates between incumbent U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and his challenger, a political upstart named Abraham Lincoln.

When Douglas began his hourlong opening statement for the first debate with Lincoln, he committed himself to "discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the public mind."

The date was Aug. 21, 1858. The place was Ottawa, Illinois. It was the first of seven debates between then and Oct. 15 in different towns across Illinois - a series of detailed, lengthy, boldly articulate exchanges that led to Douglas' re-election to the Senate but also set the stage for Lincoln's rise to the presidency a couple of years later.

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We like the idea of the Sunday Night Debates, televised live on public television, with replays during the week. We think word would spread, people would watch, the public would be engaged.

We think the Daschle-Thune debates could set a new direction for political campaigns. It's a high-profile race between two bright, articulate candidates with strong ideals and differing philosophies - much like Lincoln and Douglas.

Just as there were back then, there are many issues today that "agitate the public mind."

We're asking Daschle and Thune to face up to them honestly in the coming two months, in a series of debates that could, once again, make history.

I agree! It's the ultimate confession of weakness and fear for Daschle to keep dodging real debates. I heard one South Dakotan say that 'I expect the person I send to Congress to be able to debate and explain his views, not hide in the shadows.' Again, I agree.