(CNN) –On the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama each take the stage to discuss service and civic engagement in a forum at Columbia University.
What do you think of their ideas? How does the role of service determine what kind of nation we live in? What does national service mean to you?
Along with CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider, CNN Political Analyst Roland Martin, and Republican strategist Bay Buchanan, thousands of you weighed in.
Click "comments" below for a look at the entire conversation.
From CNN Politics
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When Senator McCain was in Vietnam....THERE WAS A DRAFT!................John Kerry graduated from Yale and "ENLISTED' in the Navy while Mr. Bush went to the Alabama Air National Guard so he wouldn't have to see "COMBAT...yet John Kerry's service was disparaged by Karl Rove and the Bush administration during his 2004 Presidential campaign........
Bottom line ask Max Cleland about service.
If you're paying close attention, he regularly contradicts himself. Let our soldiers and vets get accepted to the school, any school they choose. Who's gonna pay for it? Certainly not McCains administration. He voted against an increased budget for this segment as they reenter civil life.
I hope they raise the question about college kids being forced to chose between scholarships and registering to vote using their physical address.
I watched part of Palin's interview and where are the tough questions? All she did is talk about more WAR
wonder why Senator McCain just said "particularly as an officer"? are they worthier than the rank and file soldiers?
i think the host,did not ask a fundemental question,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they should ask him was it wrong for obama to have server as a community organizer.
Rolland, why would they ask that question? I have been following the primaries and the general election from the beginning and from what I see, McCain has been let off the hook as far as tough questions go...just like the moose burger eater....
I don't think McCain as good as he did at Saddleback. He sounds old and tired a bit. I can already see Obama winning this debate.
|Everything that I have heard Senator |Obama say over the past 9 months or so Sen. |Mc|Cain is mimicking right now .
CNN, could you please wrap up your questions with this boring, lying man? It's like watching paint dry. Geez!
Even Barack Obama did NOT disagree with Bush 100 % of the time
I wonder ih McCain will say something that contradicts Palin's comments today.
McCain was asked about what ideas he has on alleviating college loans for students, this guy side stepped the question and went on to talk about volunteering...what tha heck!
Laura
This is being fair.
Roland Martin,
CNN Political Analyst September 11th, 2008 8:20 pm ET
Question that MUST be asked of McCain: If service is so great, and serving in the military is the ultimate act of service, does he support gays and lesbians serving in the military? Think about it.
If serving in the military is the ULTIMATE ACT, then should gays and lesbians be able to serve openly in the military?
What if the service to our Country is community organizer? We all know that is not quite as important of a Mayor, the GOP has told us so.
It's astonishing how much McCain can talk without answering the question.
For the sake of service, we need to expand our military? Being the largest in the world and our defense budget being larger than all other countries combined at this point in time. I support people willing to put their life on the line, but the choices of Bush and now McCain don't answer to the return spent on the Pentagon. What a rip-off for us, taxpayers. Anyone on that angle?
So at the convention, and every chance they've gotten since then, McCain and Palin have belittled and mocked community service. And now we're supposed to listen to McCain sit on a stage and tell everyone how he wants all of us to do some kind of service? Nice try, McHypocrite.
Regarding bias AND hypocrisy...
Sarah Palin uses "lipstick" in a speech one week and the very next a smirking Obama reads "lipstick on a pig" right off his script (he looks back and forth at his script in his hand several times while reading this pre-written comment). Then pleads innocence when accused of sexistly referring to Palin, a woman with this lipstick slapstick.
BUT this is exactly the same scenario as when he called Bill Clinton a racist: after Clinton compared Obama's success over Hillary in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's previous success in a South Carolina election. The "black" connection in that reference was clear to Obama then. But he is feigning innocence in his Lipstick on a Pig reference.
Senator Obama, calling a woman a Pig is just as unacceptable as having someone pigeonhole you for being black. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF! Stick to the issues and don't use offensive and unacceptable references!
Dusty, I am in agreement that we should have defended ourselves. But where we went wrong was diverting our attention to Iraq. Hat's not why we went to war!
My son volunteered the year after his high school graduation to City Year Detroit. He worked for ten months in Detroit public elementary schools, along with supporting many other local organizations, receiving a very minimal living stipend. He graduated from this amazing program this past June. He then found out that his living stipend, less than $150.00 per week (much less than a week of military pay!), is subject to federal income tax!
How does taxing public service living stipends encourage our youth to volunteer a year of t heir lives to their community, to their country? I want to hear the candidates respond to that.
EVERYTIME MCCAIN OPEN'S HIS MOUTH. . .HIS FOOT GOES IN!
Rolland didn't the Clintons implement the "don't ask don't tell policy"?
Roland,
You hit the nail on the head, so to speak and I wasn't referring to Gov. Palin. I also wonder what this is going to tell me about the candidates ability to help our nation. We have so many problems to deal with I hardly think their view of service is going to help solve what the next President is going to deal with.
no one is talking about how the rebups are paying off some folks in her town to keep their mouth closed about Gov. Palin. i have evidence of this.