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Take the Journalists Off the Debate Stage
Townhall.com ^ | November 8, 2015 | Jeff Jacoby

Posted on 11/08/2015 8:16:07 PM PST by Kaslin

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1 posted on 11/08/2015 8:16:07 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I would settle for a prohibition against asking anyone to know the names of foreign leaders with oddball names, and that all moderators for democrat debates be from Fox.

And then the candidates should lose all financial incentives to run to weed out the ones just padding the retirement via contributions.


2 posted on 11/08/2015 8:19:42 PM PST by DesertRhino ("I want those feeble minded asses overthrown,,,")
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To: DesertRhino

How about they just have debates at County Fairs and other live venues, all over the country? We sure as heck don’t need the ‘journalists’ to moderate these. Nobody watches TV these days anyway, and to pay them to mock the opposite party’s candidates just doesn’t sit right with me.


3 posted on 11/08/2015 8:23:39 PM PST by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: Kaslin

Why not invite the Smithsonian Institution to arrange a debate, with a panel made up of Nobel Prize recipients?

******************************************************************************

That’s laughable. The Nobel Prize has long ago lost any meaning. Obama has one, let him moderate?


4 posted on 11/08/2015 8:24:00 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Bill and Hillary Clinton are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of our political system.)
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To: Kaslin
Jacoby was doing fine until this part where he ran off the rails:

Who should moderate instead? Why not enlist some of the nation's finest teachers to pose questions to the candidates? Why not invite the Smithsonian Institution to arrange a debate, with a panel made up of Nobel Prize recipients? Why not recruit presidential historians say, Edmund Morris, Amity Shlaes, and Michael Beschloss to put would-be chief executives through their paces? For that matter, why not a debate in which the candidates are interrogated by former presidential nominees? Surely voters would be at least as interested in watching Bob Dole and Michael Dukakis grill the presidential contestants as in seeing Gwen Ifill or Bret Baier do it.

How would any of those boobs be different from the boobs we have now?

5 posted on 11/08/2015 8:28:46 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or 'climate change.' - Dr.Cernea)
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To: Kaslin
 photo 5f4621a2-eb24-4814-afa0-e51769a4b119_zpsfe4ed74n.jpg
6 posted on 11/08/2015 8:29:09 PM PST by timestax (American Media = Domestic Enemy)
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To: bboop
How about they just have debates at County Fair

. . . and allow us to toss vegetables at them.

7 posted on 11/08/2015 8:29:51 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or 'climate change.' - Dr.Cernea)
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To: Kaslin

I think there are certainly better options than what we currently have but the ones proposed by this author seem a step down rather than a step up.


8 posted on 11/08/2015 8:41:53 PM PST by Lake Living
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To: Kaslin

Moderators NOT REQUIRED or DESIRED.

One word questions, with each candidate allowed xx minutes to answer, with a counter by each opposing candidate for xx minutes.

Proceeded by opening statements for xx minutes, closing statements for xx minutes.

One word questions...

Economy? Comments please...

Immigration. Comments please...

National Security. Comments please...

Education. Comments please...

Simple enough?


9 posted on 11/08/2015 9:03:22 PM PST by detch (")
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To: Kaslin
> ...like WWE Wrestling, minus the gravitas...

Now that there is funny, I don't care who you are.

It's also completely accurate.

10 posted on 11/08/2015 9:44:37 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: Kaslin
The writer is correct in that the media shouldn't be allowed anywhere near these debates, but most of his suggestions for alternative questioners are pretty ridiculous, as well. Most of the names he suggests are as partisan as any of the media types.
11 posted on 11/08/2015 9:46:20 PM PST by Major Matt Mason (Those that can, do, those that can't, work in the Beltway.)
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To: timestax

Thanks for that image.


12 posted on 11/08/2015 9:46:28 PM PST by matthew fuller (BHO strategy: anti-American, anti-Western, pro-Islamic, pro-Iranian, and pro-Muslim Brotherhood.)
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To: Kaslin
> Imagine candidates in a dialogue moderated by ... a skillful panel drawn from the world of business -- Microsoft founder Bill Gates, maybe...

Liberal doo-gooder and one-worlder Gates? Oh dear Lord, not Gates.

13 posted on 11/08/2015 9:48:12 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: timestax

You forgot a few. I can’t watch TV as I do not have one, but does everyone at the WA Compost desereve the list? My first pick would be that rabid liberal, Chris “chillface” Cillizza. While you are at it, why not include a few radio hosts, namely Hugh “the Duane bashing and feckless humor” Hewitt? Sounds good. Maybe I should get a TV——NOT!!!


14 posted on 11/08/2015 10:48:05 PM PST by Fungi
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To: Kaslin

Every one of the ideas floated ignores those most affected - We the People. Why not debates moderated by randomly selected people across this geographic entity?


15 posted on 11/09/2015 12:00:14 AM PST by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: Kaslin

>>The most acclaimed candidate debates in American history the Lincoln-Douglas encounters of 1858 had nothing in common with modern presidential debates: No questions from moderators, no 60-second time limits, no ricocheting from topic to topic, no real-time reaction from focus groups. No pre- and post-debate sermonizing by political pundits. No Anderson Cooper or Megyn Kelly. No presidential candidates, even. (Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were running for the US Senate).

No commercial breaks


16 posted on 11/09/2015 1:50:34 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The goal of Socialism is Communism. Marx and Lenin were in agreement on this.)
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To: Jeff Chandler; MeshugeMikey
>>How about they just have debates at County Fair


17 posted on 11/09/2015 1:54:34 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The goal of Socialism is Communism. Marx and Lenin were in agreement on this.)
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To: dayglored
> Imagine candidates in a dialogue moderated by ... a skillful panel drawn from the world of business -- Microsoft founder Bill Gates, maybe...

How about the founder of Chick-Fil-A, or the CEO of Hobby Lobby, or the inventor and former CEO behind Firefox?

18 posted on 11/09/2015 1:56:24 AM PST by a fool in paradise (The goal of Socialism is Communism. Marx and Lenin were in agreement on this.)
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To: Kaslin

Today’s debate are structured so the moderator can maintain control over what the candidate says. It’s all about control. And we live in such a rule based society that it mostly works. (My favorite was when Giuliani was running and the stage was full of candidates. The moderator said, “Everybody who believes in Global Warming raise your hand. It was like a third grade class. I turned it off.)

I agree with the author. Let the candidates articulate their vision of what the country should do.


19 posted on 11/09/2015 2:54:09 AM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: Major Matt Mason
Maybe Dr. Carson and The Donald would like to get their orals in military affairs and foreign policy from, say, David Petraeus.

Sorta like being examined on the subject of fastballs by Nolan Ryan and Dennis Eckersly.

Foreign policy? Hmmm, is George Schultz still available? Henry the K sure is .... how about John Bolton and Schultz?

I'd like to see Hillary getting grilled on Benghazi by a guy named Moncrieff Y. Spear, who was U.S. consul in Da Nang when the wheels came off. He knows a thing or nine about crisis diplomacy and survival time. As in, "Go ahead and park your tanks on the beach and swim out to the ships. Do it now. The NVA are right behind us."

Yeah, Hill, what would you do? What did you counsel your ambassador to do? By the way, where was your boss?

Better still, let Dr. K. "examine" her ..... it'd be like a procto exam with ocotillo cactus .... the mighty Henry the K, examining the poseur, the fake, the inflated ego .... one mighty ego circling another, like a scene out of Jurassic World, Henry sniffing the scent of blood as he sizes up his big, fat, cankled prey..... it'd be epic. They could show it in movie theaters and charge admission, like "The Thrilla in Manila". I'd pay to see it, me.

20 posted on 11/09/2015 3:04:45 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a house , the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutierrez)
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