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Well, Politico's John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei think so and write, "With the country at one of its most interesting—not to mention terrifying—moments in a generation, John McCain and Barack Obama met in Nashville for what was surely one of the dullest and was definitely the least satisfying presidential debate in memory...The problem is the commission that has been invested with pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates but in fact weakly defers to candidates and clings to antiquated formats." Ouch! They also outline why the debate sucked so much. Last night's debate was a town hall-format, but next week's debate at Hofstra will be traditional--2 minute answers with 5 minutes for follow up discussion and 2 minute closings. And the topic is the economy and domestic policy.
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These "debates" are disgraceful. They aren't debates, they're two hours of each candidate giving 2 minute stump speeches. And it's the same god damn thing over and over.
"Obama's gonna raise your taxes"
"No I won't, only if you make more than $250,000, and you'll give a break to the super-rich"
"No I won't, I just don't want more taxes and you want to raise them"
"Yes you do"
"No I don't"
Ugh.
I agree, that debate totally sucked ass and both candidates barely said anything of interest. The format of the debates should also be changed, and I'm not talking about the stupid town hall thing.
Every debate rushes to touch on every subject and so we wind up with the same debate three times over -- a bunch of 90 second meaningless sound bites about repeated over and over again. Instead of talking about everything for a minute or two in each debate, let's divide the debates up by topic. So the first one could maybe be about foreign policy, the second one about financial issues and the third about social and domestic, or something like that. That way we could have more substantial discussions instead of just repeating the same things over and over and over again.
These are not debates and the word debate has taken on the meaning of being this bit of Kabuki theatre. Your average member of a high school debate club would most likely beat either of these two politicians in a proper debate. About the only type of debate that these two should be in is a Burr Hamilton style debate. That would be better than this fake stylized nonsense.
These two, along with the majority of American politicians, can't think on their feet and like a robot spew forth the prepackaged talking points.
to paraphrase a commenter impressed by Costello's performance during the Kefauver hearings -
bring back Sarah Palin!
JenChungsBra: the first one was supposed to be solely on foreign policy. Unfortunately, the economy made that 90 degree downward turn and the commission realized that people might actually need to hear what the candidates had to say in regard to the economy at that time. The second debate was a mix of issues because it is the debate where voters were able to submit their questions. The third debate is slated to be solely on domestic policy issues.
What you "proposed" is essentially how it was set up, but then the world had to go and change on us.
McCain is either starting to show an onset of dementia (memory loss and trouble thinking clearly) or else his behavior was a calculated move to make conservatives nostalgic for Reagan.
Give them each a mic, and have them address and question each other directly. No audience, no questions from a moderator -- just a moderator on hand to keep it within basic rules.
big deal like there's an oscar for best debate.
stop being so elitist. we should stop televising debates and have them in theatres like Lincoln.
i thought it was as substantive debate
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/mccain%20bush%20hug%20twn.jpg
ewwww
well, as this debate makes clear, no matter who wins, we lose.
I agree. These "debates" are a joke. It doesn't seem like they are actually debating anything. They are just spouting buzzwords and phrases for 2 hours.
A lot of people complain, but what are they going to do about it?
It would be easy to fix the debates. Stop showing them live. Show them the next night after all the fact-checking has been done and add captions correcting every misstatement, lie, exaggeration, etc. that each candidate makes. They may have second thoughts about talking so much if they knew that voters/viewers would see every deception revealed during the debate broadcast, when interest is at its highest, rather than days later when people don't care much anymore. You wouldn't even need a moderator in that kind of debate. Just let them go at each other. The risk of saying something wrong and having it pointed out on-screen should keep them from breaking out the mud.
It's hard to discuss issues with an attention and intelligence challenged populace.
Wink-wink, you betcha!
Why does a debate have to be entertaining? These are serious times. What do you want, dancing girls and fireworks?
I agree. It was pretty much the same thing as the last one. Same misleading accusations that were made, rebutted...
2 minutes is not enough to make a clear position on any issue. You can learn more if you go to their site!
I thought this was interesting: a small blog post criticizing when McCain called Obama "that one". I thought it was really disrespectful on his behalf, and it's not the first time I feel some bad attitude towards Obama.
It was McCain's to win and Obama's to lose. Obama didn't want to rock the boat cause he's leading in the polls so he could play it safe. McCain had a chance but he basically just spoke to his constituents. We need another VP debate to spice things up.
Good idea, Spiritof76.
I say make it like a wrestling match...theme music and all.
Enough with the "that one" comment...
During much of the first debate, Sen. Obama addressed Sen. McCain as "John" while Sen. McCain addressed Sen. Obama as "SENATOR Barack Obama/ Obama. Not once did McCain say Barack. Talk about political etiquette and respectfulness.
Just look at the first 15 minutes:
"because, you know, 10 days ago, JOHN said that the fundamentals of the economy are sound."
"Well, the -- JOHN, 10 days ago, you said that the
fundamentals of the economy are sound"
"the policies of President Bush that JOHN
McCain wants to -- wants to follow."
"But let's go back to the original point. JOHN, nobody is denying that $18 billion is important."
"Now, JOHN mentioned the fact that business taxes on paper are high in this country"
"JOHN, you want to give oil companies another $4 billion"
http://www.olemiss.edu/debate/debate_news/details.php?id=58
Anyone else notice "that", did the media report "that"?
Barack Bottom!
Send "Trophy Tom" Brokaw back to his Montana trout stream and let McCain and "That One" tear each other up. This Democrat vs. Republican thing will end violently anyway so Let's Get It On!
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That's what Jon Stewart does, and well.