A Boston Tea Party … (Debate or A Three Part Play)
The Presidential debates begin on Thursday evening. If I were you I wouldn’t get my hopes up. The lawyers of the two parties agreed on a fifty page document that defined such issues as what questions will be asked, how far apart the two candidates must be, and even what kind of paper can be used to write down notes. A Presidential debate should not be orchestrated down to the minutest detail. For this reason I believe the debate will be much more like a Broadway play than a debate. Sure there may be a major screw up by one of the participants just like occasionally an actor can have a bad performance.
Think about it, would you not rather have a debate that causes each candidate to think on there feet? A debate where the candidates don’t know the questions beforehand. A debate that allows the candidates to go after each other on issues rather than just speak to the camera. Why should a debate be limited to one subject? On Thursday the subject is foreign policy. I would rather see the candidates jump from one issue to another and back again. Oh sure we are going to see Kerry speak without really making a point and Bush mess up the pronunciation of a few words but we will not see any spontaneity or improvisation by the candidates. In the end each party’s talking head will spin the debate in their candidate’s favor and we will not have learned anything new about either one of them. The format won’t allow it. The only thing we will know is which candidate does better in a rehearsal than a live performance. I’ll be watching but I wish we could expect more from Presidential candidates.
posted by schumacher @ 12:15 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I agree with what you are saying. This is one of the reasons I thought the President's interview with Bill O'Reilly earlier this week was a success for both the President and O'Reilly. There was no indication or notification of what the questions would be. The only major restriction was that it was to be only 30 minutes; other than that, O'Reilly could ask any question he saw fit. As a result of this, the President looked more relaxed (although he usually does). On some occassions, he even had to think about his answer for a moment. This in turn helped us see the President as a human being and not a stiff sculpture ala Kerry.
You won't see this during the debates. The answers given by both will be planned well ahead of time with the delivery of the answer being the least scripted aspect of it. Otherwise, we will already have heard the answers before in stump speeches and interviews. The questions won't be hard hitting and will provide little if any new insight into each candidate's positions.
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