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American Values

Monday, November 19, 2007

From: Gary Bauer


Voters Lose

I’ve long wondered whether the current presidential debate format sufficiently informs the public about where the candidates stand on the issues, or whether the debates are merely stage-managed public relations events during which candidates offer obtuse and abstract answers to pre-approved questions from friendly questioners. I participated in seven Republican presidential debates in 1999 and 2000. Although I performed well, I was constantly frustrated over the format of the debates, which typically allowed candidates a mere 90 seconds to answer complex public policy questions and another 30 seconds to offer rebuttals.

The inadequacy of the current debate format was highlighted during last Thursday’s CNN-hosted Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. While host Wolf Blitzer introduced the debate audience, from which some of the questions were derived, as a crowd of “ordinary people, undecided voters,â€