Experimenting with the Fall Presidential Debates
The media is at work offering the candidates advice for the fall debates. In particular, the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau's Jim Tankersley weighs in with a list to guide the traveling road show proposed by McCain. Some of the ideas have merit; others would raise more debates among the campaigns and the media.
The meta-message of this advice is: (1) the Commission on Presidential Debates is not a factor, never even acknowledged in the post and (2) despite careful wording the campaigned is framed as a two man race, the proposal implicitly "assumes" McCain vs. Obama.
Specific suggestions from the entry "Traveling debates for McCain, Obama? Here's how."
The "road show" format could change that with a few simple guidelines that wouldn't favor either candidate - only voters.
- Let the candidates pick a number of debates in advance and promise to stick to them - no calls for more debates later if someone is trailing in the polls or media exposure. We'll use 10 for our example, but it could be any number the campaigns decide on.
- Draft venues. Ten debates? McCain picks five sites, the Democrat picks five sites. No objections allowed. If they wanted to get fancy, they could each have to pick a site in one of five regions - the Northeast, the South, the industrial Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast.
The Swamp's suggestions continues below the cut
