The Debates

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by Greyson

Romney did somehow get a comment in about education when the question was about foreign policy. He said something about putting the kids first and putting Teachers Unions behind us.

I am not impressed when either candidate is asked a question and their response throws everything in it except what the question was about.

I found this in my morning reading in Slate. I see others are noticing such obvious non-answers too.


"Below you'll find a segment-by-segment breakdown of how both Obama and Romney found ways to sprinkle their favorite domestic talking points into their foreign policy answers. As you'll see, both proved more than cable of staying on topic when they wanted (see: Israel), but didn't hesitate to return to their tried-and-true domestic-heavy stump speeches when they thought it would help them."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...cy_debate.html

[tonaderspeisung]

did anyone else catch the 3rd party debate?

i was a little disappointed with the questions - the first one seemed set up to stroke the ego of the debate organizers and the rest were lobbed softballs for the occupy crowd they seemed to be targeting

i admit i went in with a favoring for rocky anderson but i'm in line with gary johnson's position on last nights debate topics - i wish i could make a frankenstein monster of the 2 of them

[Semantics]

Originally Posted by tonaderspeisung

did anyone else catch the 3rd party debate?

i was a little disappointed with the questions - the first one seemed set up to stroke the ego of the debate organizers and the rest were lobbed softballs for the occupy crowd they seemed to be targeting

i admit i went in with a favoring for rocky anderson but i'm in line with gary johnson's position on last nights debate topics - i wish i could make a frankenstein monster of the 2 of them

I watched.

The 3rd party candidates were so respectful of the debate process and of each other. Larry King kept messing up the agenda and the order and they were very gracious.
I like Johnson, Anderson, and Stein. Although I did enjoy listening to Virgil Goode's accent, his issue positions made me twitchy.

I agree that some of the questions were lame. I wish the 3rd party candidates were allowed to debate with the Democrats and Republicans. It makes the debates so much more interesting and also highlights how similar the two main candidates actually are.

[tonaderspeisung]

Originally Posted by Semantics

I watched.

The 3rd party candidates were so respectful of the debate process and of each other. Larry King kept messing up the agenda and the order and they were very gracious.
I like Johnson, Anderson, and Stein. Although I did enjoy listening to Virgil Goode's accent, his issue positions made me twitchy.

I agree that some of the questions were lame. I wish the 3rd party candidates were allowed to debate with the Democrats and Republicans. It makes the debates so much more interesting and also highlights how similar the two main candidates actually are.

re: goode - i felt like closed captioning would have helped - his accent is very strong - saying he made me twitchy would be an understatement
but i liked his "term limits would cut through congress like a knife through hot buttah"

[Martina]

I heard excerpts on NPR. Free higher education. Damn, we need that but there is no will to make that a reality. That would address income inequality.

Goode was funny re drugs. He said something like "If you want to legalize drugs, vote for one of these other fellers. Do not for me." The way he said it made me laugh.

NPR was also talking about how little the housing crisis has been discussed during the election. I can see why the candidates have not wanted to discuss it, but why has the press and the public let them get away with that. Elephant in the living room issue.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Martina

I heard excerpts on NPR. Free higher education. Damn, we need that but there is no will to make that a reality. That would address income inequality.

Goode was funny re drugs. He said something like "If you want to legalize drugs, vote for one of these other fellers. Do not for me." The way he said it made me laugh.

NPR was also talking about how little the housing crisis has been discussed during the election. I can see why the candidates have not wanted to discuss it, but why has the press and the public let them get away with that. Elephant in the living room issue.

Because our media has forgotten the whole reason we grant them the huge amount of latitude we do. They seem to think that their function is to enjoy 'access' to political and economic elites as well as turn a profit and if, in the course of doing so, they happen to report the news and be the keepers of the Eleventh Commandment (thou shalt not get away with it) no one is going to complain, as such but that is a secondary function to actually reporting the news.

Since our current media has an attention span so brief that it makes a kitten look like a Zen master they simply cannot do reportage on issues like the housing crisis (complex, multi-causal and implicates economic elites) or climate change (complex, multi-causal, implicates economic elites and requires a bit of science to explain) or pretty much anything *other* than 'he said, she said' gossip and, of course, the horse race of the numbers.

Cheers
Aj