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What good are debates without juicy questions?
What good are political debates when the juicy questions don't get asked?
Date published: 2/22/2008 RELATED:Clinton: Obama 'Change You Can Xerox' (AP)
HILLARY CLINTON keeps demanding that Barack Obama hold more debates. Political debates? Talk about a waste of time! In a society where the latest antics of Britney Spears get more television air time than the Iraq War, who is going to watch a presidential primary debate? Even in the midst of Still, the Democrats and Republicans keep running all over the country participating The excuse for these debates, of course, is that the American people need to hear the candidates' take on the issues. Listen, these candidates are spending millions of dollars on TV, radio and newspaper ads every month. Anyone who hasn't heard their spiel by now certainly is not going to flip over to some semiobscure cable channel to become better informed. But debates give cities and states a few moments in the spotlight and create programming for television, so they will likely continue. Once upon a time, I discovered long ago, however, that pro wrestlers have choreographers and that political candidates have aides who screen debate questions. In a national election, image is too important to have some joker ask Questions that are not politically correct are tossed out and any reporter who slips something in that wasn't supposed to be asked will likely never participate in another debate. Questions are screened even on a local level. Two years ago, during a public forum that I attended, questions were sought from the audience and the woman next to me asked in writing--which was the official procedure--for a candidate's response as to her actual district of residency, which, to some, had come into question.
Date published: 2/22/2008
These are not "debates"
(posted by
MtMav
, Feb. 22, 2008 7:01 am)
These are discussions and not debates. These 19 get togethers have been little more than a game of verbal "gotcha" and not exactly in the Lincoln-Douglas tradition. The word "debate" has joined the pantheon of words we Americans have diluted or perverted over the years. (Others include: hero, victim, survivor, war, dear, middle class, many others). I would ask that members of the media stop using the word "debate" when referring to these chats.
These are not "debates"
(posted by
MtMav
, Feb. 22, 2008 6:55 am)
These are discussions and not debates. These 19 get togethers have been little more than a game of verbal "gotcha" and not exactly in the Lincoln-Douglas tradition. The word "debate" has joined the pantheon of words we Americans have diluted or perverted over the years. (Others include: hero, victim, survivor, war, dear, middle class, many others). I would ask that members of the media stop using the word "debate" when referring to these chats.
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