Food Fight!!!!

There was a food fight on TV last night. It was brutal and painful to watch. Some people called it a “debate” but anyone who watched it really knows better. The moderators quickly lost any semblance of control and the entire event descended into a chaotic melee of adults acting like children. Between the personal attacks and the bedlam created by three or four of the candidates talking at the same time there was really very little benefit gained from watching the event because there was little discussion of anything substantive.

I don’t fault the moderators. The script for the evening was written before they ever took their seats. I do think that if we are going to continue to have debates there are some things that need to be considered about how they should be run. Here are a few ideas that might be considered:

1. Every candidate starts off the debate with an equal amount of time allotted to them, from which they can draw for giving their answers and rebuttals. Each time they speak, the amount of time they use is subtracted from their allotted time and when their allotted time is gone they are done … they cannot speak anymore … “period…period…period.” This would encourage the participants to be more disciplined and concise in their answers … and eliminate the “time-hogs” who consistently violate the time limitations.
2. When the one-minute and fifteen second time limit for an answer is reached, turn off the microphone, instead of saying “thank you …. thank…..thank you senator …. thank….ad-nauseum. Same for the 45 second rebuttals.
3. Penalize a candidate who ignores the rules by placing a 5 minute moratorium on giving them an opportunity to speak.

I don’t expect that any of these ideas will ever be implemented by either political party. I would hope, however, that someone in a position to do something about it would recognize that food-fight debates do not serve the American people … but perhaps those on the stage are not really interested in serving the American people to begin with; and THAT is a real problem.