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The Debate was Theatre.
    #3202369 -

Every four years, the Republican and Democratic candidates assemble a team of negotiators that are sufficiently talented to broker international peace accords. This year it was James Baker heading the Republican team and Vernon Jordan heading the Democratic team. And these negotiators, behind closed doors in Washington, draft a secret debate contract called the Memorandum of Understanding that dictates precisely how the debates will be structured. Who will participate, who will ask the questions, whether there will be follow-up questions, whether the town hall audience's questions have to be prescreened by the moderator. They hand the document to an organization called the Commission on Presidential Debates which obediently implements every stipulation of the contract. Why? Because the commission, which masquerades as a non-partisan sponsor was created by the Republican and Democratic parties for the Republican and Democratic parties. The commission was created in 1986 after the parties ratified an agreement to ?take over the presidential debates.? It's co-shared by Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk. These two individuals are the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. And this organization was created because the League of Women Voters, which used to host the debates, actually had the guts to criticize the candidates and fought to include challengers.


In the presidential debates, the candidates cannot even ask each other questions or talk to each other. They have no more than 90 seconds to 120 seconds to answer a question, so they?re just reciting their memorized sound bite. They have vetted all of the moderators. There's limited use of follow-up questions. The town hall audience, for example, has to submit their questions in advance, on index cards to the moderator. The moderator throws out the questions he or she doesn't like. Then points to the individual in the audience who he or she wants to ask the question according to a seating chart. If the person in the audience asks a question that in any way deviates from the question he submits in advance, the town hall moderator can cut him off and move on the next question. The town hall audience is not really there to ask questions, they're just there as props. The moderator is still choosing the questions. You end up with a debate in which the candidates are reciting a series of memorized sound bites to fit cute 90-second response slots. They cannot speak to each other. They're not going to get tough questions because they have selected all the questioners. It?s not really debating -- it?s a glorified bipartisan press conference. And of course, all third party voices will excluded as they have been in the last three election cycles, because the candidates just don't want anybody else on that stage.

There's all of the little detailed rules that these brilliant lawyers behind closed doors have negotiated in the 32-page contract, which is absolutely ridiculous, that are related to experiences in history. In none of these debates can a camera have a shot of an opponent while one of these candidates is speaking. Why is that? Because in 1992, President George H. W. Bush, President Bush?s father, was caught looking at his watch during a town hall debate, which really reinforced the notion then being propagated by Democrats that he was out of touch with the American people. It was a huge slip-up. As a result, his son has required that there would be no camera shot angles in the debates. There's a bunch of these rules. For instance, this is the first time that the public will actually see timer lights showing how much time is left in the candidate's response. They will actually see colored lights, changing colors as the candidate's response time shrinks in the 120- or 90-second response. It looks like a game show. What's the important behind this? The Bush people are convinced that Kerry is verbose and is likely to exceed his allotted time regulations, and they want to show the American people that Kerry does not know how to follow the rules.



//From DemocracyNow.Org


Republican = Democrat = Businessman.
Whatever you choose it's all the same.


--------------------
Oh cmon, I'm a fun guy.

Edited by methikist (10/01/04 12:13 AM)

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: methikist]
    #3202406 -

Honestly, I'm sorry, but come on, its called paragraphs, look into them....

I can't read shit of what you've said, yeah, blame it on the Beam, but whatever....


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Re-Defeat Bush in '04

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: Skikid16]
    #3202428 -

You cant read?


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Oh cmon, I'm a fun guy.

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: methikist]
    #3202447 -

Not right now, to be honest.

And even if I wasn't three sheets to the wind, those long paragraphs are shitty to anyone.


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Re-Defeat Bush in '04

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: methikist]
    #3202452 -

I agree.

I go a little paragraph happy sometimes.

But...

It makes the posts easier to read.

Depends on the monitor and resolution people have too.

Best to make your posts easy to read if you want people to read them.


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Fiddlesticks.


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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: Rose]
    #3202457 -

Quote:
Best to make your posts easy to read if you want people to read them. 

  :thumbup:


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Re-Defeat Bush in '04

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: Skikid16]
    #3202481 -

the absolute height of laziness.

I don't care if the message is in chicken scratch, if the message is good, it's worth reading.


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Oh cmon, I'm a fun guy.

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: methikist]
    #3202493 -

Yes it was.

And yes, the debate was theatrical. It is theatre. Stage... live performance. Scripts to follow...

It looked a lot less like a game show than I anticipated.


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Fiddlesticks.


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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: methikist]
    #3203253 -

Quote:
I don't care if the message is in chicken scratch, if the message is good, it's worth reading.

I don't care if the message is GREAT, if its in long ass paragraphs which makes it hard to keep your place (especially when you're drunk, sorry, I had to celebrate the debates) it is not going to be read as much as if you broke it down.

GOD, I'm not saying your message wasn't good, I'm saying your presentation was HORRIBLE, don't take it so personal....


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Re-Defeat Bush in '04

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Re: The Debate was Theatre. [Re: Skikid16]
    #3203663 -

Style vs. substance?  Balance is key :smile:


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"...yet another in a long series of diversions an attempt to avoid responsibility."

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