Debate was a missed opportunity for voters
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
There was no clear winner in Tuesday night's presidential debate, but there
were clear losers: America's undecided voters.
It was their one chance to see Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama
onstage
together interacting directly with voters and spontaneously answering the
questions of ordinary citizens. Instead, they heard mostly a rehash of stump
speeches and claims and counter-claims already repeated ad nauseum on the
campaign trail.
Billed as a town-hall-style debate, the event's stilted format yielded few
memorable or illuminative moments. Scared-stiff audience members read their
questions from note cards after those questions were screened and selected
by
moderator and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. Brokaw inserted many of his
own piercingly personal, straight-from-the-heartland queries, such as "Who
do
you have in mind for Treasury secretary?" and "Would you give Congress a
date
certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you
take
office?"
Instead of a free-wheeling, wide-ranging debate in which the candidates
engaged
directly with voters on a broad spectrum of issues, the gathering featured
canned discussion of only a few topics, mostly confined to wonkish exchanges
on
economic and foreign policy.
The debate was the latest in a series of disappointments this electoral
season.
There were the early "Jeopardy"-style primary debates, in which a slew of
candidates competed to see who could squeeze the most headline-grabbing
phrases
into 60-second sound-bites. Then there was the overhyped CNN/YouTube
Republican
debate, which fell short of its populist billing when it became clear that
CNN
staffers had picked the questions and turned the "people's debate" into a
forum
for Democratic partisans. The late-season primary debates between Sen.
Hillary
Clinton and Obama were punchier and more revealing, and Gov. Sarah Palin's
outside-the-Beltway persona enlivened the recent vice-presidential debate,
making it the second most-watched debate in history. But Tuesday's
presidential
debate marked a return to the disappointing status quo.
The moderators have been a big part of the problem, but the presidential
campaigns also share the blame. They negotiated the straitjacket rules that
have made direct engagement and rebuttal so scarce in these stage-managed,
contrived affairs.
As a consequence, American voters miss out. We miss the chance to see the
candidates offer unrehearsed responses to deeper questions about their
governing philosophy, life experiences and personal values, including the
cultural and character issues so often dismissed as a distraction by Beltway
moderators.
Missing from our superficial debates are such questions as: What does this
candidate think is the role of government in a citizen's life? Does he see
government as the answer to our problems or as the problem itself? Does he
worry, as I do, about our coarsened popular culture, the disintegration of
our
families, the violence on our streets and protecting the innocence of our
children? Does he have a plan for bringing our country together amid such
deep
partisan divisions? What is that plan, and does his record show that he
could
carry it out? What does he believe is the root cause of the terrorist threat
America faces today? Does he see the world the way I do? Can I trust him?
When we elect a president, we're not just choosing a set of policies; we're
choosing the person we want to see on TV screens for the next four years,
the
person we want waking up to that 3 a.m. emergency call to respond to a
national
crisis, the person we want imposing his political will and values on
government
and, by extension, on our nation.
Choosing a president is a little like choosing a spouse, albeit for a
shorter-term commitment: We'll be stuck with this person after Jan. 20, so
we
want someone we can live with long after the debates have ended, the ballots
have been cast and counted and the hard work of governing has begun.
Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.