Two of the best minds in the debate world are having a nuanced, public debate on the college debate listserv about the Bolton nomination. Former National champion Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (who’s now at FrontPageMag and confirmbolton.com) and former National championships top speaker Prof. Gordon Mitchell (who’s now at the University of Pittsburgh and is my old coach) are posting back and forth:
RESOLVED: That the U.S. Department of State’s December 19, 2002 Fact Sheet, ‘Illustrative Examples of Omissions From the Iraqi Declaration to the United Nations Security Council,’ is Evidence that John Bolton Should Not Be Confirmed as U.N. Ambassador.
Prof. Mitchell is affirming and Gartenstein-Ross is negating. The third post in the debate is here, and it has links to the previous posts. If you’re looking for nuanced, reasonable debate about the Bolton nomination, this is the place to go.
A word of warning: the debate community is a strange place, filled with beasts both frightening and wonderful. Please resist the urge to wander around alone, and under no circumstances should you feed the animals. Remember Margaret Mead: “The natives are superficially agreeable, but they go in for cannibalism, headhunting, infanticide, incest, avoidance and joking relationships, and biting lice in half with their teeth”.
