Can the Debate Process be Saved?

Since the Regan v Carter debates in 1980, the debate process has morphed into a showcase of sound bites rather than a true debate. Often times the candidates have the questions in advance and then are limited in their responses to 30 or 40 seconds. Whatever will fit in a 30 second story on the evening news is all that these news agencies are interested in.

I think that the process can be saved but I don’t believe that it is currently effective. Because if it were we would have seen several people drop out of the race by now.

First off, the debates should be held in a manner where the candidates answer questions about a single topic only on a particular night. It can be set up where candidates are asked questions by journalists representing the different news agencies. For example…

On a particular night CNN hosts a debate of Democratic candidates moderated by Wolfie Blitzer. But the questions are then asked by representatives of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CNN as a pool. Each candidate should be given enough time to explain his/her position fully. Two weeks later the debate moves to Fox and is moderated by Brit Hume. Each night covers a different topic. The hosting network should allot the entire evening to the debate after all, it is in both the best interest of the network to have the debate and for the nation to have complete answers to the issues so that we know who we should support.

Along with my example, If CNN hosts the Dems this week, they should host the Republicans next week. Then the whole process could be held on alternating weeks. Then, by the time we get to the primary we know who best to support based on their explanation of their positions on the issues. Not through mud slinging ads and leaks.

The process we have now is limited in time and is broad is scope. This creates a situation where candidates don’t have the opportunity to give an accurate answer so they give a fluffed up made for the evening news sound bite non-answer orchestrated by handlers like pre-packaged snack foods. We are not being well served by this process.

If we had real debates people like Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul would no longer be involved in the process. The process would have exposed them as the lunatics that they are long before now and the debate stage would be smaller.

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