discussion, discourse, hearings, speeches, forums, arguments, controversies, polemics, hustings, debaters, conversation, disagreements, mudslinging, dialogues, referenda, speechifying, meetings, rhetoric, town hall, campaigning, spats, question time, contestation, politics, squabbles, roundtable, plebiscites, disputations, quarrels, disquisitions, bickering, battles, wrangling, politicking, deliberations, consultations, issues, townhall, lectures, primaries, stalemates, skirmishing, peroration, contretemps, kerfuffles, spar, dustups, candidates, donnybrook, brouhaha, controversary, demagoguery, colloquy, topics, symposiums, lawmaking, pontificating, orations, colloquia, elections, summits, posturing, fights, questions, conferences, wars, polls, donnybrooks, gabfest, caucus, arguers, slanging match, sloganeering, coronations, editorials, electioneers, joust, disputes, hairsplitting, bloviation, sniping, horserace, bloviate, pronouncements, tussles, partisanship, talk, blather, shoptalk, diatribes, briefings, musings, contests, punditry, trivialities, feuds, testiest, talkathon, cogitation, ruckuses, stemwinder, fulminations, debate, controversy, discussions, dispute, polemic, contentions, discourses, struggles, critiques, developments, concerns, campaigns, challenges, manifestos

congressional record, douglas, endless, stephen a. douglas, stephen arnold douglas, the little giant, untouched, vice-presidential