Posted by
m0t0r1zed on Friday, October 03, 2008 6:20:34 PM
The problem with the current format with moderators is that certain questions or issues that conservatives or liberals would like to have asked are never brought up. The best thing would be to have the moderator quickly go over the basic issues of the economy, foreign policy, etc. for the first half of the debate, and then to let the debaters go at each other in the second half.
Palin attempted to do that, but since it was not that kind of format, it made her look like she was not answering the questions. Biden pointed this out, which is a basic high school level debating technique.
I'm not sure of the format of the remaining McCain-Obama debates, and I'm too lazy to find out. I think one of them is townhall format, but it doesn't matter. If the remaining debate questions are prosaic, then it's over. Obama wins (unless there is some "October surprise").
Instead of just responding to the moderator's questions, McCain needs to start injecting his own questions into the debates to catch Obama off balance. McCain should preface this by saying something like, "I don't think the media is asking the tough questions that need to be answered by Obama, so I'm gonna do it myself."
For example, let's say McCain gets a question on foreign policy. He should answer it briefly with a sentence or two, and then ask a different question to Obama. Obama then has to answer two different questions, and he can't ignore McCain's question since that will look evasive.
If the moderator starts complaining, then McCain should answer in maverick style like, "Get bent" or "Bugger off you commie pinko." Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea.
Moderators will never ask questions about Obama's ties to Ayers, or the Infants Protection Act, or other issues that could trip him up. More importantly, although the media will ask numerous questions along the vein of "why isn't government doing more?" (ideologically aligned to the left), such as providing additional services and expanding bureaucracy, they will never ask questions that are ideologically aligned more closely to the right, such as "why don't we get rid of these inefficient agencies?" or "do you think it is time to get rid of the income tax?" or "should government do less?"
You're far more likely to get questions about addressing "inequities" rather than loss of individual liberty.
And blah blah blah.
[insert more useless blather here]
It's funny since I'm not really ideologically aligned to either liberals or conservatives, but that's blah blah blah.
blah blah blah?
blah blah.
meh, too lazy to edit.