Libertytree
3rd September 2011, 10:42 AM
A Serious GOP Debate
A Princeton professor will interview the candidates on Monday.
http://www.nationalreview.com/images/spacer.gif
When Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence, moderates the Palmetto Freedom Forum on Monday, he won’t ask about deep-dish pizza. Instead, he will urge GOP presidential contenders, as he does his students, to explore their constitutional beliefs. “The idea is to break the mold, to get away from the standard, media-run debates with their gotcha questions,” he says. In turn, he hopes, the candidates will drop “their stump speeches and canned answers.”
George, a Roman Catholic scholar who frequently teaches a course with liberal favorite Cornel West, will be sharing his duties with a pair of tea-party Republicans, Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.). Both men are considered GOP kingmakers in their respective states. George, for his part, is a kingmaker of a different sort, an academic titan with deep ties to the conservative movement.
How candidates respond to George’s queries, which will focus on the political and philosophical, could shake up a primary season that, so far, has been dominated by platitudes. The race for the GOP nomination, he says, is often cast as a scramble for the highly coveted but nebulous tea-party crown. But few voters, he laments, have a sense of how leading Republicans interpret the principles that inspire tea-party activists.
George aims to clarify the often blurry positions of Republican candidates on issues of political, moral, and philosophical importance. If they give him a stock or evasive response, he will follow up with sharper questions. It won’t be a fishing (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1#) expedition for red-hot quotes, he emphasizes, but a quest for paragraph-length answers about America’s founding principles in an office-hours-type setting.
George has been grappling with these issues for years. At Princeton, he directs the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics during the George W. Bush administration, and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. As an author, he has written numerous books on natural law, public morality, and civil liberties. As a political figure, he co-chairs the National Organization for Marriage.
But his most recent endeavor is the American Principles Project, which he founded. The non-profit organization is sponsoring the Labor Day event. In coming months, he would like to see the group continue to serve as a resource for presidential candidates, assisting them and their staffs with questions on the “principles that are articulated in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution — and those principles of Western civilization that are presupposed by what is expressed in those documents.”
“Even though the challenges we face are, in some ways, unprecedented, we believe the answer is not to look for new principles, but to promote a renewed fidelity to our old principles, to the founding principles,” George says. “This is not anything unique. It is also the same sentiment that gave rise to the Tea Party, which has gotten a lot of Americans thinking again about the Constitution and what it means to be a self-governing people in a regime of republican and limited government.”
In George’s view, the forum, which will be held in Columbia, S.C., will be a moment of reflection for the candidates, who can more often be found sitting in front of remote television cameras doing cable-television hits or hurried press gaggles. Each candidate — Rick Perry, Mitt Romney (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1#), Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Herman Cain — will face questions individually and have 22 minutes to ruminate, explain, and muse.
Cont. at link http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1
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http://americanprinciplesproject.org/2011/09/labor-day-presidential-debate-to-be-broadcast-live-by-cnn/
Washington, DC— Today, the American Principles Project announced that CNN will broadcast the “American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum” live in Columbia, S.C. on Monday, September 5 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. The event’s unique format will cut through the talking points and put the candidates to test in a crucial early nominating state. The website www.Townhall.com (http://www.townhall.com/) will live-stream the event, including a roundtable immediately following it with analysis from the three panelists.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will join Texas Governor Rick Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), Rep. Ron Paul (TX), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and businessman Herman Cain are set to participate. They will be on the stage one-at-a-time and will participate in a question and answer session with three panelists: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Dr. Robert George, founder of American Principles Project and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.
The event will be moderated by David Stanton, a veteran of South Carolina presidential events and respected former local news anchor.
Invitations were also sent to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The criteria set was at or above the 5 percent threshold in the RealClearPolitics.com 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination average at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, August 22, and therefore all qualified for invitations to the Labor Day afternoon event.
The American Principles Project is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving and propagating the fundamental principles on which our country was founded – universal principles, embracing the notion that we are all, “created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
A Princeton professor will interview the candidates on Monday.
http://www.nationalreview.com/images/spacer.gif
When Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence, moderates the Palmetto Freedom Forum on Monday, he won’t ask about deep-dish pizza. Instead, he will urge GOP presidential contenders, as he does his students, to explore their constitutional beliefs. “The idea is to break the mold, to get away from the standard, media-run debates with their gotcha questions,” he says. In turn, he hopes, the candidates will drop “their stump speeches and canned answers.”
George, a Roman Catholic scholar who frequently teaches a course with liberal favorite Cornel West, will be sharing his duties with a pair of tea-party Republicans, Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.). Both men are considered GOP kingmakers in their respective states. George, for his part, is a kingmaker of a different sort, an academic titan with deep ties to the conservative movement.
How candidates respond to George’s queries, which will focus on the political and philosophical, could shake up a primary season that, so far, has been dominated by platitudes. The race for the GOP nomination, he says, is often cast as a scramble for the highly coveted but nebulous tea-party crown. But few voters, he laments, have a sense of how leading Republicans interpret the principles that inspire tea-party activists.
George aims to clarify the often blurry positions of Republican candidates on issues of political, moral, and philosophical importance. If they give him a stock or evasive response, he will follow up with sharper questions. It won’t be a fishing (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1#) expedition for red-hot quotes, he emphasizes, but a quest for paragraph-length answers about America’s founding principles in an office-hours-type setting.
George has been grappling with these issues for years. At Princeton, he directs the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics during the George W. Bush administration, and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. As an author, he has written numerous books on natural law, public morality, and civil liberties. As a political figure, he co-chairs the National Organization for Marriage.
But his most recent endeavor is the American Principles Project, which he founded. The non-profit organization is sponsoring the Labor Day event. In coming months, he would like to see the group continue to serve as a resource for presidential candidates, assisting them and their staffs with questions on the “principles that are articulated in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution — and those principles of Western civilization that are presupposed by what is expressed in those documents.”
“Even though the challenges we face are, in some ways, unprecedented, we believe the answer is not to look for new principles, but to promote a renewed fidelity to our old principles, to the founding principles,” George says. “This is not anything unique. It is also the same sentiment that gave rise to the Tea Party, which has gotten a lot of Americans thinking again about the Constitution and what it means to be a self-governing people in a regime of republican and limited government.”
In George’s view, the forum, which will be held in Columbia, S.C., will be a moment of reflection for the candidates, who can more often be found sitting in front of remote television cameras doing cable-television hits or hurried press gaggles. Each candidate — Rick Perry, Mitt Romney (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1#), Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Herman Cain — will face questions individually and have 22 minutes to ruminate, explain, and muse.
Cont. at link http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276207/serious-gop-debate-robert-costa?page=1
.................................................. .................................................. .........
http://americanprinciplesproject.org/2011/09/labor-day-presidential-debate-to-be-broadcast-live-by-cnn/
Washington, DC— Today, the American Principles Project announced that CNN will broadcast the “American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum” live in Columbia, S.C. on Monday, September 5 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. The event’s unique format will cut through the talking points and put the candidates to test in a crucial early nominating state. The website www.Townhall.com (http://www.townhall.com/) will live-stream the event, including a roundtable immediately following it with analysis from the three panelists.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will join Texas Governor Rick Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), Rep. Ron Paul (TX), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and businessman Herman Cain are set to participate. They will be on the stage one-at-a-time and will participate in a question and answer session with three panelists: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Dr. Robert George, founder of American Principles Project and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.
The event will be moderated by David Stanton, a veteran of South Carolina presidential events and respected former local news anchor.
Invitations were also sent to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The criteria set was at or above the 5 percent threshold in the RealClearPolitics.com 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination average at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, August 22, and therefore all qualified for invitations to the Labor Day afternoon event.
The American Principles Project is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving and propagating the fundamental principles on which our country was founded – universal principles, embracing the notion that we are all, “created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”