The Democrats in Congress have all but ceded the debate.
Declaring a program "covert" when it is reported on by the global media on a daily basis is increasingly absurd: as Joshua Foust, an analyst and former U.S. intelligence official, has argued, keeping the program secret cedes the debate to critics who say the strikes only kill vast numbers of civilians.
Having spent two years meeting with survivors, experts, school faculty and administrators, and prior to that, three years educating ourselves about sexual assault in the military, we are not about to cede the debate on campus sexual assault to pundits and professional cynics.
"I have no intention of ceding the values debate to George Bush anywhere in America".
European policy-makers must address cultural and political anxieties about Islam and refugees head on, rather than ceding the public debate to the far right and their self-defeating policies, argues political economy professor Behzad Yaghmaian.
And he ceded the national debate on central issues to those same Republicans, mired in his belief that the force of his intellect could melt their obstructionism, that one eloquent speech could change his political fortunes.
As a result, he has ceded the public debate on much of the culture war to Democrats, who have campaigned with enthusiasm as a party supportive of gay rights and opposed to restrictions on abortion.
"Democrats should not cede the immigration debate to Donald Trump, but that's exactly what they do when they skip critical forums like the first-ever UNITE Iowa immigration forum," O'Malley spokeswoman Gabi Domenzain said in a statement.
Given the close contest, ceding the crucial, opinion-shaping post-debate airtime to Biden might have been a mistake.
Oakeshott said he was concerned that the political debate was controlled by media voices and the community was ceding the "public square", which has traditionally encouraged debate.
