Debate? What debate?

[less lee]

Saturday, September 29, 2012

You call this a debate?

Wow! Are you fired up about the Obama v. Romney debate? Yeah baby! Obama is going to give Romney a body slam!
Uh…not really. What will take place at the University of Denver will be so punctilious that there will be a massive soporific reaction. Over the years, presidential debates have been so altered and fine-tuned that you have to ask yourself, “why bother to show up at all?” These events are over-regulated and tightly regimented. Why don’t they just use pre-recorded answers? The American people deserve to be treated like brainless voters! They’ll sit on their collective ass, slack-jawed, and make inane remarks like, “I like Mitt’s tie.”
Every 4 years, we get these so-called presidential debates. They are corporate- directed and usually held in a hall or auditorium at some college so they appear to have some scholarly virtue. These debates should be held at some oil company’s conference room, or maybe at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles! That would be more honest.
Candidates’ debates used to be slightly better when The League of Women Voters conducted them. But the campaign managers made demands, and more demands, until a debate became nothing but two rival candidates standing next to one another. The panel usually consists of writers who are at the end of their careers. Some are (sic) news reporters who spent almost their entire careers reading teleprompters. They are seated behind a desk, asking pre-scripted questions that both candidates previously agreed upon. Each candidate already knows what the other will say during his/her rebuttal time. This is not a debate, it’s an info-mercial! Hundreds, if not thousands of people have made the same compliant as I! Does anything change? Hell, no!
I wish Obama had resigned from the Democratic Party to be an independent, like George Washington did. The Dems treat politics like a Broadway play and professional sports. Politics is all about entertainment. Do you really believe that!? When you hear a four-year-old voice say, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” do you think politics is about winners and losers? You see your husband past out drunk on your couch.
What the U.S. Americans want to see is a panel of presidential candidates from different political parties, standing behind podiums defending their parties’ agenda. I am so fucking sick of the excuse that these so-called third parties do not have a certain percentage of registered voters to deserve a seat at the table! The only thing Democrats and Republicans ever agreed on was is to keep third parties off of the ballots! Now, that’s bipartisanship! The two-party system consists of cowards who are afraid of third parties!
A real debate is an atmosphere of invectiveness, not a tea party for well-dressed gentlemen! We are not British dignitaries! I want to see Obama call Romney names and accuse him of being an asshole! Which he is! I want to see yelling and rudeness! I want to hear one candidate interrupt the other in mid sentence! I want to hear Romney yell out, “Let me finish! Let me finish! You had your turn! Let me have mine!” I want to hear the candidate from the Green Party call Obama a corporate Uncle Tom! I love to hear the Constitution Party candidate call Romney an anti-American Mormon, while Romney gives him a copy of the Watchtower! I would really love to hear the candidate from the Communist Party USA denounce both candidates as being agents of the ruling class!
And, “So,” you ask, “What would this accomplish?” A great deal more than what you will be witnessing this Wednesday!

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles is owned by the people of Los Angeles

it was named after the principle donors Lillian Disney being the main force in the building of the hall. It is not owned by a corporation, it is a public concert hall.

[frazzled]

2. Sounds like you want World Wrestling smackdown

Not only is that not going to happen (why should the candidate who is far ahead risk much of anything in a debate?), but it shouldn't happen. Sorry it's boring to you, but a real debate is actually not about "an atmosphere of invectiveness" or "yelling and rudeness." It's supposed to be about putting forth the most compelling argument in a cogent and convincing manner, backed by the facts and an engaging speaking style.

Your scenario would accomplish absolutely nothing. (Or, to put it another way, it would accomplish nothing more than the debates we currently have, with their Marquess of Queensbury Rules.) It would just be macho entertainment for spectators, with escalating improprieties, hyperbole, and more lies than we get now.

So no thanks. If you don't like the current debates, I suggest that you try to find some professional boxing on TV at the appointed time.

[less lee]

3. I want a real debate damn it!

Ah...where is the spontaneity to the debates when the arguments are already known. It's all prefab dog shit? High school debates are more exciting than this commercial crap! I want a real debate where the canidates have to use their intellect and knowlege not feeding info in miniature ear piece. Other wise, give them pistols and have a duel!

[Telly Savalas]

5. While the smackdown fetish is juvenile, so is pretending that presidential debates have legitimacy

It's just a dual of superficial talking points, and the candidates rarely directly answer the questions they are given or refute arguments made by their opponent.

Since we already know that one of the candidates is woefully unfit for the job, I'm not clear on what is to be gained by watching.

[frazzled]

6. The answer is

Don't watch. You already know how you're going to vote anyway, don't you? The rest is just spectacle. So unless you're just curious, you needn't get in a lather about how bad the debates are. Just don't watch them.

[cbayer]

4. "I want to hear the candidate from the Green Party call Obama a corporate Uncle Tom!"

Did you write this or did you forget the link to DailyKos?

If you wrote it, do you really want to see some racist garbage thrown at our first African American President?

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Wow.

[Jennicut]

9. Indeed. Speechless at that post.

[cbayer]

10. Wait, what?

This post is so full of racial stereotypes that I can't tell if you are kidding or not.

And I am still not sure on whether you wrote the OP or took it from DailyKos without a link.

Finally, your link in this post doesn't work, so I don't have any idea what that's about.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. I agree in part what you are saying

I don't want it to be a WWF event and I want some level of civility maintained (these are people whom are potentially going to be representing our country for the next 4 years. I don't want a "President Camacho&quot but I hate that debates usually consist of little more than "talking points" and "zingers" from each side. It would definitely be nice to see an actual reasonable discussion about ideas, policies, etc. Things, however, have become so polarized in this country thanks to hate radio and Tea Party (among other things), it seems practically impossible right now. When enough people get sick of the status quo, things will change IMHO. I think that there is a real thirst in this country for more "middle ground" but people whom want this need to take the next steps and work for and vote for more "middle ground" candidates. President Obama is a very "middle ground" candidate IMHO but he's been forced to operate in a highly partisan environment.