Just as John Podhoretz said, Hillary turned in a decent performance and everyone is saying that she's back when she never left in the first place.
These debates are not debates...they are a game that diminish the stature of the office they are attempting to attain. Newt has it right on this one when he said, referring to a Republican debate:The debates recently were ludicrous. I mean, first of all it's ludicrous to say -- in the debate the other night, the Republicans averaged seven minutes and 20 seconds apiece split up into 25 to 30-second answers. The television celebrities are the kings. The television celebrities dominate these things. They cut people off. They treat them with disrespect. The potential president of the United States, the most powerful governing office in the world, shrinks with each appearance in these shows, and we don't have a national discussion.
I'm not even talking about some of the preposterous assertions made by the candidates, I'm talking about the format that resembles the Farm Show with the prize-winning horses up for display, and everyone's looking to see which one trips.
Newt has proposed "Nine Nineties in Nine" in which the two remaining candidates after the primaries would take the following pledge:
"If I receive my party's nomination for President of the United States, I pledge to participate in nine, ninety-minute dialogues in the nine weeks before the general election with my opponent. In the Lincoln-Douglas style, I will agree to debate my opponent with only a time-keeper, and to insist upon no rules. I understand it will be just me and my solutions and my opponent with theirs."Newt goes on to say that,
Americans deserve the chance to see the candidates in an unfiltered dialogue. They deserve to be persuaded with solutions that stem from core beliefs. Most of all, they deserve a presidential election process worthy of choosing the man or woman who will occupy the Oval Office and assume the mantle of leader of the free world.Well said.
2 comments:
Ah Lincoln-Douglas debates...I remember those well from my debate team in high school.
Unfortunately I doubt we will ever see that from politicians. By the time a politician reaches the national level, they are just an empty suit full of talking points.
About the only way it will change is if a 3rd party candidate can truly mount a challenge to the status-quo Rep/Dem duality.
I agree to a point...Casey's win over Santorum is the perfect example of an empty suit replacing a statesman that tried to play politics.
I think we should always keep in mind that change can always happen, for better or worse, with a confluence of the proper leadership, events and popular sentiment.
Generally speaking, 3rd parties are a fool's errand because they harm the good in favor of the ideal.
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