Before the Democratic primary had ended, presumed GOP Senator John McCain of Arizona had invited then-Democratic co-frontrunner Senator Barack Obama of Illinois to joint-town hall style meetings. Obama had said that he would be open to such an idea. Also, McCain had sent a letter to Obama for ten joint town-hall meetings. Obama was open to the idea.
But, both campaigns are working the technicalities of pulling off the joint town hall meetings between the presumed presidential nominees. If both Obama and McCain do the joint town hall meetings, this should be interesting. It would seem that many are anticipating this possibility.
However, both campaigns have rejected the initial offer from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ABC News for the first joint town hall meeting. It would be an ABC News primetime broadcast. Neither Obama nor McCain were receptive to the idea. Both of them had agreed that having one network hosting the event is not a good way to start the joint town hall meetings.
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said that this invitation to cover the joint town hall meetings is open to all TV networks. Both the Obama and McCain campaigns want these joint town hall meetings to be covered on various media outlets.
Burton said: “Both campaigns indicate that any additional appearances will be open to all networks for broadcast on TV or Internet like the presidential commission debates, rather than sponsored by a single network or news organization.”
The McCain campaign has said something similar. Tucker Bounds, spokesman for the McCain campaign said: “Both campaigns agree the town hall meetings will be open to press but not sponsored or moderated by the press.”
Before Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, McCain invited him to ten joint appearances from now until August, where the Democratic National Convention is set to take place.
Both campaigns are discussing the details.
This is something that both campaigns agree on. They want joint town hall meetings that are open to all media outlets to be broadcast on TV and online. But, the joint town hall meetings should be interesting to watch.
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