“The Presidential debates — the single most important electoral event in the process of selecting a President — should provide voters with an opportunity to see the popular candidates discussing important issues in an unscripted manner. But the Presidential debates fail to do so, because the major party candidates secretly control them.
“Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the bi-partisan, corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution committed to voter education, the CPD has continually and deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people. The CPD, co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, secretly submits to the demands of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Accordingly, the CPD insulates the major party candidates from challenging questions, difficult issues, and popular third party and independent candidates. As a result, under the CPD’s control, the debates have been reduced to ‘glorified bi-partisan news conferences,’ where the major party candidates merely recite prepackaged soundbites and avoid discussing many important issues.”
(Bold mine.)
More.
Sounds a lot like Bush’s news conferences, right?
Read all about Open Debates, then join the 13,240 of us who have already signed the petition to reform the presidential debate process. There are also other ways to take action.
1 response so far ↓
1 Gabe A_nderson // Sep 21, 2004 at 11:45 am
According to CNN, the rules of the debate released today dictate that the candidates cannot ask each other questions directly!! What the fuck, I say?? What the fuck?? That’s no debate.
They also can’t touch each other or stand on anything to appear taller.