Ugh. There they go again.
Are you watching the Republican debate tonight?
I’m not. I hate the damn things. I’m not at all sure this is a great way to pick a leader.
Oh, I realize public debate has been a central part of politics since, like, Rome or Babylon or Og the Mammoth Slayer versus Gru Hamfist or whatever. If you’ve ever watched Prime Minister’s Question Time, you have to admire the sharp elbows and quick thinking of Limey politicians. They make our legislators look like the mongtards they truly are.
But, you know, those are debates. Go back to, say, Lincoln/Douglas…those guys were arguing about a defined set of topics (mostly slavery). They were having a conversation about topics.
What we do is make our candidates stand like lemons under bright lights while self-important lefty journos sling gotcha questions at them (Who’s the vice president of Durkadurkastan?) and meelions and meelions of people watch them on TV to see who flinches. This is doubly stupid in the Republican debates, where the dang moderators NEVER ask about things important to Republicans (why do we allow this? WHY?).
I’m just not sure the qualities that would make somebody good at this are the same qualities that make somebody good at presidenting. Also, I have grievous stage fright and thinking about standing up there before all those invisible eyeballs…I need a little lie-down.
By the way, if you’ve got it in your head (I did) that televised debates have been a part of our political landscape since Kennedy/Nixon, not so. It was sixteen years before Ford revived the format, trying to pushback against Ol’ Peanuts.
September 7, 2011 — 8:39 pm
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