Town Hall Forum Canceled - sorry!
The candidates have still not confirmed with the organizers, so the event has been canceled.
Enjoy your campaign consumption, nonetheless!

Ralph Nader announced his bid for president on Meet the Press today. Tim Russert gave a ridiculous interview, focusing on the 2000 election and Nader's potential effect on Democrats rather than real issues. Below is a particularly blatant and shameful example of Russert's disregard for Nader's platform and politics:

[The election coverage has avoided discussion of Palestine/Israel] even though it's central to our security and to, to the situation in the Middle East. [Barak Obama] was pro-Palestinian when he was in Illinois before he ran for the state Senate, during he ran--during the state Senate. Now he's, he's supporting the Israeli destruction of the tiny section called Gaza with a million and a half people. He doesn't have any sympathy for a civilian death ratio of about 300-to-1; 300 Palestinians to one Israeli. He's not taking a leadership position in supporting the Israeli peace movement, which represents former Cabinet ministers, people in the Knesset, former generals, former security officials, in addition to mayors and leading intellectuals. One would think he would at least say, "Let's have a hearing for the Israeli peace movement in the Congress," so we don't just have a monotone support of the Israeli government's attitude toward the Palestinians and their illegal occupation of Palestine.

MR. RUSSERT: But would you prefer, as an American citizen, to have Barack Obama or John McCain as president?  continue reading »

As reported in the Palladium-Item, Mayoral candidates Sally Hutton and Rick Thalls, along with candidates in other contested races for City Clerk and City Council, will debate on Thursday October 18th at 6:30 PM in Vivian Auditorium on the campus of IU East.

The debate is being hosted by the Richmond Wayne County Chamber of Commerce.

There are a number of resources available online to help Richmond residents decide which of the Mayoral candidates to vote for in the upcoming election. Last night's debate between Sally Hutton and Rick Thalls was captured in a variety of media formats; it was live-blogged and you can read the resulting transcript, the Pal-Item has a story, and posted video and audio from the event to go along with it. The paper is also publishing a blog co-written by the two candidates between now and election day, and they're also soliciting questions from readers that the candidates could answer on the blog. And of course you can visit the candidate websites: RickThalls.com and HuttonForMayor.com.

If you know of any other resources, online or offline, to help voters decide, feel free to mention them in the comments.