Posted by D. Cupples | Candidate debates are fairly substance free, with performances ranging from rooster-esque strutting to Thunderdome. About last week's debate, humorist Joel Achenbach commented:
"The debate was about as pleasant and genteel as a dogfight. CNN should have replaced Wolf Blitzer with Michael Vick. The CNN promos had promised, with scarcely hidden glee, that the gloves were going to come off, and sure enough, the first questions were designed to maximize the verbal violence. Issues be damned: Shake hands once and then come out swinging...."
"Blitzer announced at the beginning that there wouldn't be a bell to signal candidates that their time to answer a question had run out. Implication: We prefer chaos tonight. And thus our political conversation drifts toward its natural equilibrium, which is somewhere on a level with professional wrestling. (Or football, or boxing, or the circus, all three of which can be found metaphorically jabbing at one another in this morning's CNN.com story: "With moderator Wolf Blitzer serving as ringmaster and referee, the candidates sparred...")
"The coarsening of American life takes many forms, and presidential politics is hardly immune to the trend. At least no one called Hillary an unprintable name that rhymes with knee-atch.
"One might wonder who, exactly, watches these debates. The Onion just ran a story about how the American People have announced that they've dropped out of the 2008 election -- kind of like Sam Brownback. The most-read story on the CNN web site this morning was headlined "Cult Awaits End of Days In Cave," and shockingly it wasn't about the presidential candidates....." (Washington Post)
Check out this other must-read Achenbach piece from June: Red Meat Season: The Base Likes it Bloody, the Candidates Dish it Up, do the Rest of us Have to Swallow it?
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