Posted on 09/17/2015 5:58:34 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Reality TV.
I realize how furiously I’m swimming against the tide here, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Let’s start with a fact that has nothing to do with what happened last night on CNN, or what happened a month ago on Fox News: You can tell pretty much everything you need to know about every presidential candidate by spending a few hours on Google.
You can look up their policy positions and their backgrounds. You can find video clips of them speaking. You can find articles by their critics containing lots of arguments against them. You can do this and, if you’re a serious voter, you should do this.
And if you do, then nothing you see in a media-contrived “debate” should change the assessment you arrived at as a result of your own research. You should not reject a candidate who has all the attributes you’re looking for because he “looked small” on stage (whatever that means) or because he “disappeared for 45 minutes at a time” or because he said “oops”.
Wholehearted agreement. Reasoned evaluation is not, however, the way we choose our president.
The smartest assessment I’ve so far read.
Reality TV.
They need a new show: “Naked and Campaigning”
I stopped watching debates decades ago. Ever since the “You are no John Kennedy” line.
I believe you are so correct that I admit to NOT watching what is comically called a “DEBATE” since Nixon/Kennedy.
In the age is television. these “debates” have degenerated into a media circus. The hype is not about deep policy, but who looked stern, or confident, or hesitant, or nervous, but nothing to do with sheer ability or common sense.
I think of the presidents who could NOT be elected in this age of TV.
Abe Lincoln was too homely and had a poor speaking voice.
Teddy Roosevelt had a bushy mustache and way too many teeth for TV.
One who I cannot remember was so FAT (OBESE) he got stuck in a White House bathtub.
FDR couldn’t even walk to the podium.
Richard Nixon lost because of heavy beard shadow, drooping jowls, and the lights reflecting of sweat, making him look badly lacking in confidence.
Our present “leader” had the media falling in love with the “crease in his trousers.” Did us a hell of a lot of good, didn’t it?
When the “debate” started, I pushed “PLAY” on an old tape of the “Bugs Bunny/Road Runner show.” Made just as much sense.
I didn’t watch last night. I did notice that CNN’s advertising ahead of the debate, on the radio, billed it as a boxing match - a new low from the same outfit that occasionally condemns a pundit for his/her ‘tone’.
Although I didn’t watch it, I am glad they are getting high ratings. In this era, GOP candidates are vilified on social media with a ‘background noise’. Most people don’t know much about a candidate, other than they should be scared of them - Ted Cruz is an example...just some boogeyman who comes in the middle of the night and shuts the government down. So an event like last night lets people see and hear a candidate like Cruz, unfiltered - and I think that’s generally a good thing...even with all the beauty pageant nonsense.
But where would we see the SUBSTANTIVE conversation if we don’t watch?.
That word btw has replaced gravitas this season.
I don’t know why the Republicans continue to put themselves through the theatrics of a debate skewed by moderators to minimize the message of the Republican party and to maximize the damage to each candidate. IF there is to be a debate, why doesn’t the RNC just give each candidate an opportunity to speak for 10 minutes each, then, in reverse order, another 5 minute rebuttal. No questions. Just, what will your policies be and what are your priorities?
“The best predictor of future performance is past performance.”
We got Obama as President because he’s a good talker.
“Talk is cheap. I can get all the talk I want over at the Monarch Boarding House.”
Obama can’t even manage to clean a cat box. He keeps the cat turds and throws away the litter.
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