Candidate debates ending in future elections?

[knyphausen]

I disagree that debates should be done away with in future election cycles, if anything the debate format should be changed so that the candidates' positions are challenged by the moderator(s) and they can engage in a genuine dialogue between the candidates rather than spewing rehearsed talking-points that Americans have been saturated with in the past.

I can understand how the current format can appear stilted and useless precisely because politics has become such a sport for the media that it is covered ad nauseum for the duration of the election cycle. Debates become little more than opposing campaign rallies where each side tries to battle the other out by name-calling, using "zingers", and continuing to spew overused talking points. At the end of the day, barring any major gaffes, each side claims victory and the "victor" - if any such can truly exist - is the side who has the most successful spin operation.

Instead, debates should be a forum where the moderator (or preferably a group of panelists) can try to steer the debate along by offering guidelines in terms of topic but not just asking predictable questions which inevitably conjure stilted and rehearsed minute-long responses. The big problem in politics today is that politicians - on both sides - aren't addressing the specifics of issues and instead talk in platitudes. In order to foster a genuine civic discourse, debates should be more of a conversation and perhaps even a roundtable discussion where a thorough vetting of each candidate and the issues he or she brings to the table occurs.

Just my two cents...