Author: Michael Darling
The night of Wednesday Oct. 15 is the final debate of the 2008 United States Presidential election season. As usual, the debates have been predictable sound-byte festivals. Senators Obama and McCain have been forbidden from interrupting, exceeding time limits and even directly addressing each other. These restrictions, which the two campaigns and many before them have agreed to, turn the concept of debate into joint press conference.
After Tuesday night’s town hall debate, I felt the need to watch a debate where the candidates actually could interact. So, I went online and watched the episode of The West Wing called “The Debate” written by Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr. This episode was a live debate between two of the show’s characters who were running for President on the program. Early on, Alan Alda’s character, Republican Sen. Arnie Vinick makes the suggestion that they chuck out the usual rules and have a real debate:
“You know, I’ve watched every televised Presidential debate that this country has ever had. And every time I heard them recite the rules, I always thought that meant they’re not going to have a real debate. When the greatest hero of my party, Abraham Lincoln, debated, he didn’t need any rules. He wasn’t afraid of a real debate… We could go on with this ritual and let the rules decide how much you’re going to learn about the next President of the United States, or we could have a debate Lincoln would have been proud of. We could junk the rules. We could let our able and judicious moderator ask us questions. And we could forget about whether each of us has the exact same number of seconds to speak.”
Now, I have to agree with the fictional Senator Vinick. There have been moments during the first two debates and the Vice Presidential debate when I wished they would actually address the points the other made or issue a direct challenge. During last Tuesday’s debate, Obama tried to refute a claim made by McCain about one of Obama’s policies, but he could not because it was not his turn to speak. The most surreal moment came when both Obama and McCain begged moderator Tom Brokaw to allow them to break the rules and have a follow up period.
If we were to abandon these restricting rules, we’d have actual debate. In the VP debate, Sarah Palin couldn’t get away with spouting off the same old talking points because Joe Biden would have been able to call her out when she doesn’t answer the questions. In the current debate format, candidates can take baseless potshots at their rival without being encumbered by things like facts.
Currently, there is no forum in which the Presidential candidates can hold discourse. The two campaigns exist in bubbles where they can comment on the actions of the other candidate, but they never interact. Imagine if the two candidates actually talked to each other during the debates. Instead of the two possible Presidents addressing the audience, they could directly address each other and we, the American people, could see the candidates existing outside of their Democratic and Republican bubbles. Imagine if we could improve the level of political discourse in our country by improving our Presidential debates.
Michael Darling is a junior History major. He can be reached at mdarling@oxy.edu.
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