Biggest Live Debate Audience Ever?
The Chicago Tribune sets the stage:
More than 12,000 union members and their families are expected to attend the 90-minute gathering that will be broadcast live on MSNBC and WMAQ-Ch.-5 and over XM Satellite Radio, starting at 6 p.m. [CST]
Keith Olbermann will be the moderator and the Trib notes that participatory democracy is not limited to YearlyKos and YouTube debates:
The candidates also will field questions from about 10 union members, who have been selected from across the U.S., as well as questions culled from several thousand submitted to the AFL-CIO over the Internet.
MSNBC has a preview up of the candidates' opening remarks for the forum.
Although the Tribune asserts that, "[The seven Democratic candidates] will probably sound like a giant barbershop quartet, singing different notes in the same song," divisions over free trade and globalization may emerge.
Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Kucinich, Obama and Richardson accepted the invitation while Gravel and the Republican candidates did not.
