debitage: OSP Archive | |||||
Material originally published on Open Source Politics OSP Archive > "Royce Lamberth has made his decision. Now let him enforce it."> The Garbage Cans Of Pennsylvania > An Endangered Act > Dean Vs. Deanism > Bush Is Gone -- Now What? > Shameless Specter > Fighting Blind > Activist Administrators > No Thanks, We'll Walk > Affordable National Service > The Donor On The Street > In Defense Of "Climate Change" > McCain: Honorable Opponent, Bad VP > Ronald Regan -- The Man, The Myth, The Eulogy > Lessons Of Mussolini > Optimism At All Costs > New Roads, Old Rhetoric > When $175,000 Just Isn't Enough > Pennsylvania Spoilers > Keyes Vs. God > Debate Posturing > Poetic Justice As Fairness > Dog Bites Man
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Debate Posturing 28 August, 2004 John Kerry, smarting from the Swift Boat Veterans flap, has challenged President Bush to a series of weekly debates. It's a pretty typical stunt to try to make oneself seem to be taking the high road, and as usual the challengee, Bush, has declined the offer. On the one hand I'm sympathetic to the desire to focus on the issues, though it's a bit rich hearing the suggestion come from a man whose entire campaign has been based on the fact that he briefly fought in Vietnam. On the other hand, I doubt that Kerry's proposed debates would actually work to focus the campaigns on the issues. Presidential debates make a mockery of the word "debate." The candidates don't engage with each other's ideas. They just look for ways to segue from the question into a canned spiel made up of focus-group-tested sound bites. And even if there are some serious proposals on the issues in those prefabricated comments, we can't trust the media to pay attention. Reporters are too lazy to think about what the candidates are proposing and how that relates to the real situation in this country. Rather, they focus on matters of style -- like Al Gore's sighing and eye-rolling. It's a nice little self-fulfilling prophecy in which reporting on it makes it news, and the fact that it's news justifies continuing to report on it. Of course, the media isn't entirely stupid. They know that serious discussion of the issues doesn't sell papers. Neither does it get voters to the polls, or inspire donations to campaigns and 527s. A few debates are just a band-aid on a gaping wound in American democracy. Stentor Danielson |