I agree.

yes I try to stay out of politics and keep them off the blog but I found this article to be so true. I LOVE John Kelso.



Democrats should tell TV to buzz off and get debate tickets out to the people

By John KelsoAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFFriday, February 15, 2008

Today I'm fixin' to kick me some Yellow Dog behind.

Yes, the Democrats are the party of the people. Only 100 people, but still the people.

When Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama square off to debate Thursday at the University of Texas Recreational Sports Center at San Jacinto Boulevard and 20th Street, 100 lucky folks who won a drawing will get to see it live.

Everybody else in the audience of 1,000 to 3,000 will be invited.

Give me your tired, your poor. Just don't give me too darned many of them.

To steal from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., many Austinites had a dream. They had a dream of seeing this historic event in person. Keep dreamin', friends and neighbors.

Why not pick a bigger venue? The Democrats say it's not their fault and the TV people are running the show. Well, TV runs the NFL, so why shouldn't it run the Democratic Party? "The larger the venue, the worse the audio," said Sam Feist, political director for CNN, which is showing the debate, along with Univision.

The larger the event, the worse the audio? If that's the deal, when the Rolling Stones came to Austin, why didn't they play at the Cactus Cafe instead of Zilker Park?

This is a historic event. This is bigger than Ali vs. Frazier, bigger than Texas vs. OU. This is a black man running against a woman for president of the United States.

This has never happened before in the history of the U.S. Fifty years ago, Obama couldn't have even gotten into this shindig unless he was hanging up the coats. (Come to think of it, the way things are going, if he weren't running, he might not have been able to get in this time, either.) One hundred years ago, Clinton wouldn't have been allowed to vote for president, let alone run for it.

This is important stuff. This is the earth shifting under our feet.

What the Democrats should be doing is finding a great big joint with lots of seats and then filling them up with every school kid in Austin, Texas. Then maybe when they get old enough, the little boogers might bother to drag their happy behinds to the polls instead of sitting in front of their computers adjusting their MySpace pages.

But instead of doing something good like that, the place will be filled with the press and, I'll wager, a passel of lobbyists. Hey, you don't want your TV debate to look like the front row at Willie's picnic.

OK, so yes, this Obama-Clinton debate is largely a TV show. But the fact that these two candidates even have a shot at the White House and that the March 4 Texas primary will probably pick the Democratic candidate makes this debate a magic moment. Do something about it, Democrats. Let the real people in to see the magic up close and personal before I get mad.

John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com.