(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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It seems all of mccains answers are the military or related to it
I do believe that I heard His Excellence the President Calling on American people just after the 9/11 tragedy to do communities services around them and for their country. I even think they were about to make mandatory and about 3000 hours or something like for a period of time maybe a lifetime.
Senator Barack DID NOT wait for the 9/11 tragedy to do it, and he didn’t need to do it he just believe in it and went for it by instinct.
Coming now and diminishing it for any given reason is a turn off for the whole activities and for all American.
what a grand welcome for obama!
I have heard no one mention this, so i am very interested. Why does the media feel the need to dig so deep in Vice Presidency positions when the last 8 years we have had a vice president who half of americans do not even know his name, his face , or heard him speak or " what has he done? " and two.. 2nd question: please ask on live tv. i would love to know.. why are people concerned with Sarah Palins ability to work for our country just because she is a female and a mother.. did none of the other vice presidents in the past have children and had a job as a father??? please please ask- i do not remember either one of these questions been answered. Thank you. A concerned American.
MCCAIN WILL WILL AND THE REPUBLICANS WILL SHOW WHAT
LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT...
COMPETENCE, EXPERIENCE, TRUTH , COLLABORATION, AND
DEMONSTRATED SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP.
All Mc Cain talks about is the military, god mom & apple pie, he out of touch with the with the problems we all face, in this country. All he says is we need to do this and that, with no plans on how he is going to accomplish them.
Service is represented in many forms. Serving our country from a military standpoint is probably the most heroic and courageous act that an American citizen can give of himself/herself. Also, teaching, preaching, coaching,etc.... This is what being an american citizen is all about. Having the ability of freedom of speech, voting rights, home ownership. It's time for the candidates to address the real issues and problems that we're all facing in America. Economy, Health Insurance, Gasoline Prices, Mortgages, Terrorism threats. All i'm hearing is lies and deceitful ads coming from John McCain and Sarah Palin aganist Barack Obama. It's senseless to accuse him of sexism by distorting comments he made about "putting lipstick on a pig" It's still a pig. Any intelligent person knows that he was talking about nothing changing if John McCain and Sarah Palin gets in the White House. Other Republicans including Cheney, Bush, and McCain himself have made the same comment. Lastly, Sarah Palin would be only a heartbeat away if something unfortunate happened to McCain. Could she handle an international crisis from Russia, North Korea, Iran, Japan, or China. No Way!!!! She's not ready!!!
I agree with Candy. Also, a fellow blogger mentioned his company allowing a certain amount of volunteer hours which are paid by the company. Great opportunity. I hope a politcal party picks up on that line and perhaps works to encourage others. Great opportunity. Candy please make further discussion of this issue if you can. I hope the idea is not lost.
Definitely a pro Obama crowd judging from the crowd reaction.
McCain says "I want to run a campaign on issues." Then why is it that his campaign started theses swift boat, "Silly Season" politics. McCain kinda makes me cock an eyebrow in confusion. When we started with just McCain and Obama I was very happy. I thought we would have a great pres either way. McCain has lost my trust though, and Palin just scares me as a Jewish American to be perfectly honest.
McCain did a good job. He wasn't sounding angry. He was smooth, clear and direct, especially on advancing the cause of the military.
But the moderators? Oh, don't get me started! They clearly missed some important opportunities to press him, especially on the issue of gays serving openly in the military. That was such a no-brainer.
Now that’s what I call an applause.
Unfortunately that seems to be the case Roland. McCain and Palin have been lying and twisting words consistently in this campaign, and they seem to not be experiencing any consequences because of it.
You know, with all the commentary on Obama's community organizing, you think someone would explore what some of that "organizing" really was... like scraping the streets to get people to register to vote. Hey, that's noble and all, but the organization he worked for has been called into question over registering illegals and providing incorrect social security numbers on voter registration cards. I would think with as much "in-depth" reporting on Palin's past, that somewhere, sometime, someone might be willing to explore this issue, his relationship to ACORN, and to help set the record the straight.
It's all probably a non-issue, just like Palin's book banning was a non-issue, but a little more fact-finding would be useful rather than the continued "softballs" getting tossed Obama's direction in recent weeks.
I'm watching McCain on the Service Nation forum – he used the analogy "digging for a pony." Given the past week's discussion – I'm wondering...did McCain just call Obama a pony??
why does Mccain Blink alot. hmm..does that mean he is always lieing? somebody help me out here.
Now McCain says this campaign is about issues! WOW!
I think he did well.
Obama gets more applause.
Ajay I think that was a slip up also and many people didn't catch that phrase: "Frankly, I'm divorced from the day to day challenges of Americans." I thought perhaps I was the only viewer who notice that.
160 holding greencards for serving in the miliary. I know this one, I had a guy in my squad in Iraq recieve his. What about the couple million or so illegals that are not serving but rather demanding service for themselves!
Listen at that crowd!!!! They love the man and I do too!!!
Bill...
It's amazing how McCain separates himself from reality. I think he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Just listen to the applause!!!!
If there is a need for change in Washington and the GOP has been in charge for 20 of the last 28 years wouldn't the most obvious change needed be to dump the GOP?