Monday, June 09, 2008

Breaking the Debate Stranglehold

Hat-tip to KW for forwarding this op-ed from the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday ... cheerleading for Obama to agree to some form of the town-hall debates that John McCain has proposed.

We completely agree.

Anything to break out of the network TV-imposed format of media-star news-readers hurling questions as if they were bombs:
...the current presidential debate system is broken. The problem is that the authority in charge, the Commission on Presidential Debates, is beholden to the political parties and mainstream commercial television interests. This skewed situation where the foxes (corporate and political elite) guard the deliberative henhouse has a track record of producing dueling monologue formats, vapid exchanges, and circumscribed citizen involvement.

Now, we didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday, or at least we didn't fall on our heads, so we know that the McCain campaign wouldn't be proposing these town-hall encounters unless they figgered ole John had the advantage in that type environment. On behalf of Barack, who didn't ask us, we say, "Bring it on!" Any face-to-face of these two candidates on the same stage, talking issues, is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

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