Is the televised political debate format in America broken?
Candidates don’t have to answer the questions.
They can say whatever they want to say with no fact-checking.
What did we really learn Thursday night?
1) Joe Biden isn’t always as clear and powerful as he was at his State of the Union speech. It came as a surprise and disappointment for many.
2) Donald Trump refuses to answer a question without lying. No surprise, but distressing on many levels.
But are these really the best determinants for voters?
Biden’s core strength likely is in his decision-making.
Trump still appeals to many voters.
But maybe it’s time for a new format.
A couple of ideas, both very quick off the top of my head:
1) Each candidate is presented with a different question in advance. They each are allowed 5 minutes to present their answers. Then, each candidate gets a 2-minute response live.
2) Each candidate prepares questions in advance for the other candidate to answer, live. No responses.
I can see immediate flaws in both of these ideas. They are meant to stimulate discussion and ideas.
We need them badly. The current format has not been working for a long time.
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The “debate” format hasn’t been a true debate in many decades.
That said, it was shocking how befuddled Biden was. The moderators helped him out by cutting him off a couple of times. Even when Trump raises a good point — about our shameful performance in Afghanistan and whether Putin invaded Ukraine because of Biden’s perceived weakness — his bluster destroys any intelligent discussion.
In the current format, the media follow up with fact-checking -- but look what’s happened to their credibility.
Most disturbing, though, was the candidates’ casual reference to “Third World War.” We have never had a world war fought on our soil. Americans can be so naive. They don’t take politics seriously. Perhaps that’s how we ended up with these candidates.