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Candidates look abroad for debates

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By David Ignatius | Saturday, July 05, 2008 |

WASHINGTON — Here’s a crazy idea that’s being discussed by the rulers of the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai: What if they were to invite Barack Obama and John McCain to come to the desert oasis for a presidential debate?

Yes, I know: This is America’s presidential campaign, not a traveling roadshow to be shared with foreigners. And if the candidates can’t even agree on a schedule of town meetings out in the American heartland, why should they travel to a sheikdom that’s 7,000 miles from Washington — and a short boat ride from Iran?

But the idea of a Dubai debate is appealing, not least because it would link the epochal 2008 campaign with a world that cares passionately about where America is heading.

And there’s something compelling about taking the campaign to the region that will present the toughest challenges for the next president. Americans will be voting in November partly on how they think McCain or Obama will deal with the war in Iraq, the confrontation with Iran and the threat of terrorism.

Dubai’s leaders “realize the importance of such an idea and are ready to receive the candidates and organize the event,” one senior official told me.

The two campaigns are interested, but also wary. “It is an intriguing idea,” a top foreign-policy adviser in the McCain campaign told me. But he said that given the other side’s reluctance to take up McCain’s challenge for debates in America, “I doubt the Obama campaign would be interested.”

Obama’s aides similarly are cautious. They worry that a debate overseas might offend some American voters. “While these issues are exactly the sort that ought to be dealt with seriously and comprehensively in the course of this campaign, we think it preferable and most appropriate that they be discussed in front of an American audience,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

So the chances a Dubai debate will actually happen are pretty slim. Dubai is a symbol of modernization and change.

What’s likable about Dubai is that as a boomtown, it’s a city that’s “too busy to hate,” as was said a generation ago of Atlanta.

I hope that McCain and Obama will think seriously about these unofficial feelers from Dubai. The Middle East is a mess, sad to say, and dealing with the problems of that part of the world will be Job One for the next president.

I especially like the idea of Iranians watching on satellite TV as Obama and McCain debate the future, a few miles away across the Gulf. Now that would be good political theater.

Contact David Ignatius at

davidignatius@washpost.com