Surprise! Bill Clinton is on the Commission on Presidential Debates [Also, Jimmy Carter]

Over at the Daily Caller, our friend Kerry Picket has dug up an interesting tidbit regarding the debates. In this case, however, we’re not talking about the ongoing primary debates taking place between Republicans or Democrats, but rather the general election debates to come next autumn. At this point we can assume with a fair amount of certainty that one of the participants on the stage will be Hillary Clinton representing the Democrats. So when it comes time to set up those debates, establish the format, select the moderators and what not, it sure might be helpful to have your husband on the commission that determines all those things, wouldn’t it?

It’s also interesting that they invited both Ford and Reagan to be honorary chairs, but didn’t extend that courtesy to either George W. Bush or his father. As for the official co-chairs of the commission, they at least tried to establish some balance. Frank Fahrenkopf was the RNC chair for a number of years and Mike McCurry was Blill Clinton’s Press Secretary. The rest of the commission is a fairly eclectic mix of ideologies.

I agree with Kerry that the role of the honorary chairmen is unclear, specifically in terms of whether or not they have any actual duties in setting up the debates. Sometimes an “honorary” title is just that and it’s only offered as a courtesy. The honorary chairs may not have any actual role in the day to day operations of the group, but if nothing else there’s some awfully unsavory visuals involved in having the spouse of any of the candidates attached to the operation.

But if there is such balance on the commission, how did we wind up with Candy Crawley in the moderator’s chair in 2012? Their answer might be that there just weren’t that many choices as to who would have been perceived as “unbiased” to host such an event. The immediate response of “bring in somebody from Fox” probably wasn’t going to satisfy anyone because we would have simply heard a corresponding fit of outrage from the Democrats that the choice was too conservative. But the unbiased, “just the facts” beat reporter may be something of a unicorn these days. I was watching Morning Joe this morning when Scarborough was tackling the subject of biased moderators and he came straight out and said that all of the Sunday morning show hosts, the evening network news anchors and the rest of the pool of usual moderators are all Democrats. (I don’t know if that’s true with zero exceptions, but it’s certainly the rule of thumb.)

I’ve heard a couple of good suggestions recently which perhaps the Commission on Presidential Debates could consider, one of them right from our comments section. How about sifting through a list of federal or state prosecutors and finding some talent there? They’re used to asking questions in a public forum and are charged with treating everyone equally. It’s worth a look at least. Another possibility would be to tap into the coaches for the debate teams at major schools. You can’t hope to find a non-liberal in the Ivy league, but you might be able to balance them out by having the coach from Harvard and the coach from Liberty University.

But first you need to get Bill Clinton out of that honorary chair position unless his wife somehow manages to lose the primary.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.

Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr., is a U.S. lawyer, politician, and lobbyist, and was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1983 to 1989. Fahrenkopf is co-creator, and currently co-chairman, of the Commission on Presidential

Former United States Senator

Paul Grattan Kirk, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010, having been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ted Kennedy. From 1985 to 1989, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Howard Graham Buffett

Howard Graham Buffett is an American businessman, former politician, philanthropist, photographer, farmer, and conservationist. He is the middle son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. He is named after Howard Buffett

John Claggett Danforth is a retired American politician who began his career in 1968 as the Attorney General of Missouri and served three terms as United States Senator from Missouri. He is a well-regarded political moderate and conciliator who was periodically called out of retirement for troubleshooting and diplomatic roles by both political parties. In 2004 he served briefly as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Danforth is an ordained Episcopal priest

Mitch Daniels (Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.) was the Republican governor of Indiana, serving two terms from 2005-2013. Previously he served as the first Director, Office of Management and Budget under President George Walker Bush. He was replaced in that position by Joshua B. Bolten. [1] Daniels became the president of Purdue University after his second gubernatorial term ended on January 14, 2013.

Charles deWolf “Charlie” Gibson is a former United States broadcast television anchor and journalist. He was a host of Good Morning America from 1987 to 1998 and 1999 to 2006 and anchor of World News with Charles Gibson from 2006 to 2009.

Harman

Jane Harman

Jane Margaret Lakes Harman is the former U.S. Representative for California’s 36th congressional district, serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011; she is a member of the Democratic Party. Resigning from Congress in February 2011, Harman became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She succeeded former Congressman Lee Hamilton and is the first woman to lead the 45-year-old â€œliving memorialâ€ to Americaâ€™s 28th President.

This is what I have found so far, will do more later, hope it helps.....

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