Critique My Debating Form

[jerichowhiskey]

OK one thing for sure, I have to keep in mind that when I comment in public whether here or in the comment section of a news article that I am not only debating the person before me, but that I also have an audience to consider as well namely the other readers. I hope I did a decent job of that, but I may have gotten the better of myself today. It became a bit long winded and without being able to post links without it awaiting moderation, I felt a bit handicapped by it.

Anyway, the biggest sticking point for my opponent is that he doesn't like Amtrak competing with private operators and I am not sure how to respond to that part.

Here's the link to the news article. Grill me, burn me down and build me back up again, whatever. Let me know what I should have done instead.

Edit #2:
By the way, if you want to make this a general critiquing thread, I'm all for that.

 

[Ryan]

Pretty good stuff there.

You've more patience than I do.

The only other thing is that you can't reason people out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into. You'll never get this guy to agree, but as you said it's all about the other readers.

Edit: In addition to "Critique My Debating Form", this should certainly be "Get involved with the conversation".

 

[jerichowhiskey]

Ha, I actually had a post in there where it was suppose to be my final word, but I kept going... :giggle:

Indeed, I'll certainly always hope to just score points especially when at times this person didn't have a direct response to some of my statements.

 

[Ryan]

I would certainly stay away from the "final word" unless you're well and truly done. Makes you look a little... crazy? That's not the right word for it... "overly emotionally invested"??? Something like that.

 

[jerichowhiskey]

Yea, I shouldn't have done that even if I knew for sure I was certainly stepping away. I will just hope in this case the amount of replies in there crowds it out.

 

[jis]

Good stuff. Two quick corrections:

1. The existing equipment (and track) in Michigan is capable of running at a maximum speed of 110mph, not 125mph. The 125mph is possible only on the NEC at present. There currently areno diesel engines thata re necessary for the Michigan corridor that can run at more than 110mph.

2. On the NEC the current maximum speed is 150mph, not 160mph. Hopefully by 2017 it will be 160mph.

 

[Ryan]

Anyone else want to get in on this action?

The debate seems to be going pretty well, Mr. Walker seems to be just repeating the same debunked arguments over and over.

 

[Ryan]

And that's why we do this. The person sitting on the sidelines watching the debate. We'll never convince Mr. BEW, but he's run out of arguments and this person may well have been convinced that supporting Amtrak makes sense.