Kennedy was running on a platform of change, of injecting fresh blood into the White House, of kicking out the Republicans. Nixon trumpeted his greater experience, which included many years of both military and political service. He essentially promised more of the Eisenhower reign, of which he had been apart. There were serious disagreements about domestic culture at home and American actions abroad. Sounds familiar?
On September 26, coincidentally, young US Senator Barack Obama is set to square off against the eminently experienced US Senator John McCain in the first of their three presidential debates.
Thus far, between Obama's vague call for change and McCain's increasingly negative campaign, one pressing concern about the this year's election is that voters have not been given intimate enough access to the candidates and their detailed policy beliefs. On Saturday, when the two lock horns in Oxford, Mississippi over foreign policy, voters should get the inputs they need to form a more coherent picture of each candidate.
That is, if the debate happens at all. At Wednesday's emergency press conference called by John McCain has thrown the debate into doubt, as the Arizona Senator has pledged to suspend his campaign and delay the debate until the Financial Bailout Bill is adequately handled in Congress. He urged Senator Obama to do the same.
But following Senator Obama's insistence that this type of financial crisis demands the US public hear from its two candidates, and given that a bailout deal may be brokered in Congress, it appears unlikely that Friday's debate would be called off.
Image: McCain speaks during a town hall meeting at the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple on September 22 in Scranton, PA.
Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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