Obama and McCain support "open debates": remix, reuse, comment, re-distribute.

Just in time for the presidential debates tonight, from Lessig blog:

Barack Obama has reaffirmed the position he took in the primaries and asked the Debate Commission to support "open debates." Here's the letter.

Craig "Craigslist" Newmark explains that Lessig led the effort, and that "the idea is to make video footage available to everyone for commenting and reuse, a big deal."

[Barack] wrote last year to the Chairman of my Party: "The Internet has enabled an extraordinary range of citizens to participate in the political dialogue around this election. Much of that participation will take the form of citizen generated content. We, as a Party, should do everything that we can to encourage this participation… I am a strong believer in the importance of copyright, especially in a digital age. But there is no reason that this particular class of content needs the protection. We have incentive enough to debate. The networks have incentive enough to broadcast those debates. Rather than restricting the product of those debates, we should instead make sure that our democracy and citizens have the chance to benefit from them in all the ways that technology makes possible."

(via @cnewmark on Twitter)

UPDATE: The McCain campaign has also come out in support of the "open debate" project. My apologies for the earlier omission.

[#1 posted by minTphresh , October 7, 2008 9:09 AM]

what a horrible thing to say! no wonder the repulicrats hate him so!

[#2 posted by certron , October 7, 2008 9:16 AM]

Maybe he supports open debates, but does he support http://www.opendebates.org ? Possible but unlikely.

Ever since the League of Women Voters pulled out of sponsoring the debates, they have been run by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_Of_Women_Voters#Voter_service_and_citizen_education

From the above article, October 3rd, 1988 press release:

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates ... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.

[#3 posted by ianrhett , October 7, 2008 9:17 AM]

Ugh. To "OPEN" the debates means meeting with 3rd party candidates and debating the issues. I'm a huge O-fan, don't get me wrong. I think he's the most solid Presidential candidate we've had in a long, long time. Lincoln-style great. But allowing video to be remixed is not "open". Debating 3rd party candidates is open. If the Democrats really ARE proponents of broad participation in the political process, Obama should debate Paul, Barr, Nader and McSame.

I still say wait for a Ron Paul write-in announcement.

And, while i have your attention, my new video:
http://www.sharedvoice.org/grace/

[#4 posted by orion_thunter , October 7, 2008 9:55 AM]

McCain also supports open debates:
http://lessig.org/blog/mccain.pdf

via
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/10/mccain-obama-pa.html

[#5 posted by mdh , October 7, 2008 10:21 AM]

Obama should debate Paul, Barr, Nader and McSame.

Why 'should' he (or McCain ftm), debate the 1 to 5% candidates? It's a serious question. And I ask that as a 3rd party voter.

[#6 posted by jonico , October 7, 2008 10:23 AM]

We could remix the third parties into the debate. I can see it now, each one of the third party candidates adding their answer to the moderators questions. The best thing is that if a remix got big enough that it would force the big two candidates to be on the defensive of what the third parties said. Then, perhaps the the general population would understand how mainstream media frames issues to make them appear that they are only ones that matter to them

[#7 posted by CVR , October 7, 2008 10:42 AM]

I would think all the really juicy remix samples would come from the vice-presidential debate.

[#8 posted by fczuardi , October 7, 2008 12:04 PM]

McCain also supports it:

http://lessig.org/blog/2008/10/great_news_from_the_mccain_cam_1.html

[#9 posted by Jacksonbaker323 , October 7, 2008 12:26 PM]

@5 Jessie Ventura former Governor of Minnesota was down around the 5 - 7 % range that the other third party candidates are in, and when he was finally allowed to debate he won that election a mere 7 weeks later. Now I know thats a little different than a Presidential election, but look at Ross Perot he got 19% of the popular vote, and he was the only third party candidate to ever get to debate after the Comission on Presedential Debates took over. But, we may just get a chance to have a third party debate http://thirdpartyticket.com/ if they get another 2000 people to pledge to donate tomorrow then they will throw a debate with the third party candidates, with Obama and McCain invited of course.