Ed O'Reilly Challenges John Kerry To Debates

On July 23rd, I challenged John Kerry to a series of debates. I believe it is not too much to ask Senator Kerry to devote 5 days every 6 years to enter into dialogue with the people of Massachusetts.

What do you think? Should John Kerry accept my challenge? Please vote in the poll to the right.

Please read my letter below that was delivered to John Kerry's campaign on July 23rd.

"Dear Senator Kerry:

With the September 16th Primary less than eight weeks away, I believe it is time for us to schedule debates and other forums so that the voters of Massachusetts will have the ability to participate in democracy to its fullest extent. With this in mind, I am proposing that we have the following three styles of debates:

1. You and I participate in town meeting style gatherings in each of the Commonwealth's 14 Counties. This would be a way of taking direct questions from local people in an informal setting. If we devote two to three hours to each county forum, this would take approximately three working days;

2. You and I appear in a somewhat more formal setting at each of the 5 UMass campuses, Springfield Technical Community College, North Shore Community College, Berkshire Community College and Cape Cod Community College. These could be more structured than the county forums with questions from the print media as well as from the audience. This would take approximately 10-16 hours;

3. We have been formally invited to appear on Springfield's Jim Madigan's (WGBY) program, with Emily Rooney on WGBH in Boston, on WBZ-TV's Jon Keller, and on NECN with Jim Braude. I have indicated to each of these hosts that I am willing to appear with you, but your confirmation is needed. Naturally, we should be fair to other television (and radio) hosts and I am willing to increase the number of appearances, accordingly.

Since the Senate is not in session the entire month of August, there is no reason why we should not bring more direct democracy into this campaign by implementing the first two above proposals within the next few weeks.

Many of the hosts in the third proposal have indicated that television appearances would be most beneficial to voters between Labor Day and the September 16th Primary. I agree.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Edward J. O'Reilly"