Thursday, February 11, 2010
Media Clash of the Titans: Ralph Nader vs. John Stossel, March 30 at Vanderbilt
Posted by Jim Ridley on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:37 AM
It'll be just like the Lincoln-Douglas Debates -- except this time Lincoln is a crotchety hard-liner who keeps even his ideological allies walking on eggshells, and Douglas aspires to out-gripe Andy Rooney. A "point-counterpoint" discussion March 30 between former U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader and former 20/20 co-anchor John Stossel opens Vanderbilt's annual Impact Symposium, organized this year around the theme "The Future of Capitalism."
Nader and Stossel will trade salvos over the theme "Business or the Consumer First?" starting 8 p.m. at Vanderbilt's Langford Auditorium. They will find common ground on the topic of book promotion, though, at least long enough to sign their respective books at the Vanderbilt Bookstore that afternoon at 3:30 p.m.
The following day brings another former presidential contender, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, for a talk on "American Capitalism in the World." Romney will give away copies of his latest book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, to anyone who attends his book signing 3:30 p.m. March 31 at the Vanderbilt Bookstore or his talk 7 p.m. that evening at Langford Auditorium.
UPDATE: Tickets for the events are $10 to the general public, $5 to non-Vanderbilt students with college or university ID cards, available from Ticketmaster or the Sarratt box office.
Comments (13)
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Ralph Nader is a Titan. John is a has-been media talking head.
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Romney will give away copies of his latest book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, to anyone who attends his book signing
The only way it'll get read...
ralph nader would make an exellent us senator or a great president in 2012 please get to know ralph nader by reading his books: only the super rich can save us, crshing the party, and the good fight and the ralph nader reader. find out what his issues are loer taxes and better jobes for the american people. ralph naders books would make great gifts for your friends and family
I'm trying to get the appeal of this matchup. John Stossel will say Democrats are evil and Ralph Nader will trip over himself agreeing that Democrats are, in fact, evil.
Yawn.
Nader and Stossel will be far more interesting than Romney. Romney must feel giving away a few free copies of his book will help him penetrate the south. If attendees don’t take one, run fast, one might get set up like this man did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l07qpHR1UQ , frankly, I get worried when someone comes down this heavy handed, and not the first time with Romney either.
Besides, one needs to ask Romney about his close family friend, and big money political backer handing out 'personal' loans,a great job, big cars,a huge home to shamed, and corrupt mayor Kwame Kilpatrick -- there is a rotten fish in Denmark there.
After Vanderbilt’s experience with Gee, who nicely blamed many of the problems on his pot smoking non-Mormon wife, it would seem Nashville would have enough of these frauds. In a spin to end all spins, after Gee divorced his pot smoking non-Mormon wife, articles ran on how Mormons believe in marriage, not divorce, and the numbers of divorces are high between Mormons and non-Mormon marriages, the articles failing to mention the high number of divorces among Mormon temple marriages, as well as the high level of spousal abuse, and LDS women on Prozac.
Romney is another knock off of a high spending Gee, and someone like Gee who has a disdain for the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Wonder if Romney will deal with the high level of cover-up of sexual abuse of children within the stakes the Romney family dominated over? The title of his book says it all “No Apology”….. As one who lived in their stakes, saw and felt the devastation, I give Romney the boot.
This debate interests me far more than any presidential debate.
This is pretty much Libertarian Socialism vs libertarian capitalism, which is the crux of todays debate.
I am fond of both of these men, but do strongly favor stossel's philosophy, I'll admit.
John Stossel is the most courageous man in media. He tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Nader is a symbol of lawyers everywhere...looking for perfection instead of excellence. If his idiotic world view were fully implemented (sadly, much of it has been - think OSHA) there would be no innovation.
Can you imagine if this idiot was around when Henry Ford was tinkering with automobiles? Nader would have said something like this: "You meant to tell me you're going to put 10 gallons of gasoline on a four-wheeled device capable of going 30 mph and you're going to ignite the gasoline with an electric spark! We've gotta get someone from the government to stop you from putting us all in danger!"
It was an interesting debate. Stossel, however, was completely in over his head. He's not even in the same intellectual universe as Nader and it showed tonight. I felt a little bad for him at times because he was completely outmatched in this debate.
