McCain praises Jindal, urges Obama to debate

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 5, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 6:02 a.m.

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Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that Louisiana’s new governor might be America’s leader someday, avoiding directly answering if the governor might be his running mate this year.

The presumptive Republican nominee in the upcoming presidential election held a town hall meeting at the Baton Rouge River Center, where he fielded questions from an audience of about 500.

“I believe Gov. Jindal is the next generation of leadership, not just for the Republican Party but for America,” said McCain, R-Ariz.
McCain said he realizes Jindal, who took office in January, has a full schedule and full agenda in the state.

Jindal, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden and former Republican Gov. Buddy Roemer made opening remarks before McCain took the stage.

McCain called town hall meetings the “essence of democracy in America.”

McCain said he sent U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and now the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, a letter inviting Obama to join him for a series of weekly town hall meetings, starting next week, leading up to the Democratic convention.

“Now it’s time to begin the great debate across America,” McCain told reporters following the town hall meeting.

A similar plan, McCain said, was tentatively agreed to by former President Kennedy and former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, who was expected to be Kennedy’s opponent in the 1964 presidential contest.

Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Then-vice president Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, defeated Republican Goldwater the next year.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Wednesday that while the idea is appealing, the campaign would recommend a less-structured, lengthier exchange more in line with the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates.

In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, held seven times during Abraham Lincoln’s losing Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas in Illinois in 1858, a candidate spoke for an hour, the other for an hour and a half, and the first candidate was allowed a half-hour rebuttal.

McCain said the details could be tweaked but insisted that the candidates answer questions from the public, without any “media production.”

“Just two Americans running for the highest office in the greatest nation on earth, responding to the questions of the people whose trust we must earn,” McCain said.