Democracy and pizza
Councilman Chas Kelley and some politically-minded San Bernardians watched the final presidential debate Wednesday night at Jersey's Pizza on Kendall Drive.
The pepperoni and politics sessions are a regular happening for Kelley and friends. In addition to this year's debates, he also convened a gathering there to watch President Bush's final State of the Union address in January.
Kelley's office is nonpartisan, but it's well known that he's a Republican. Although Wednesday's crowd was mostly supportive of GOP nominee John McCain, local Dems were represented in the room by Sam Clauder, who works for the county Democratic Party and sends Sun reporters a lot of press releases.
I stopped by Jersey's for Wednesday's debate and also the head-to-head between vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. I didn't take notes on the discussions, but what's notable is at the close of the debates, Kelley leads a discussion on viewers' reactions.
At a time when American political discourse is shaped by such caustic personalities as Ann Coulter and Michael Moore, it's kind of refreshing to see local Republicans and Democrats having a respectful conversation on current affairs, being able to outline how they disagree with each other without resorting to the kind of personal attacks that are all too common.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
To add to this commentary, there was a local Cajon H.S. senior class teacher also present and was giving "extra credit" to his students that could attend this debate. Chas Kelley encouraged these students to share their opinions on the candidates, their positions, and why they felt as they did. This proved most interesting to get to see and hear this next generation’s view point on the election process and the countries condition which they will soon inherent. Also, the topics that were discussed after the debate was just as interesting and respectful as it covered such hot topics as Rowe vrs Wade that just may become an issue during this next Presidency. As always, Jersey’s was most accommodating for all attendee’s and their famous pizza and Wednesday Night Dinner Special was as good as ever. After all, some things we hope will never change