A Cup of JOE!

Last night, Laurence O'Donnell had a nice piece to end his show about debates. He's a former writer for the old political show, "The West Wing" and he showed a clip from that series about a presidential debate where, feeling shackled by the rules of the debate, both candidates agreed to throw aside the rules and just wing it. Sounds good to me! Though I was never a viewer, I should have been.

Two minute statements and thirty second rebuttals just don't get it. Worse, he pointed out, the format encourages both participants to be good memorizers rather than actual debaters. And the "no notes" rule certainly hinders that as well. Evidently, the candidates are not given previous knowledge of the questions to be asked either. Laurence pointed out that, no president has to on-the-spot create policy all by himself so, why ask him or his opponent to do that in front of a live audience and millions of citizens? In other words, why all the surprise?

The format of the VP debate pleased me as it was a bit more like the above. Two guys sitting around interrupting each other is just like real life. There has to be a moderator and I think Martha Raddatz did an excellent job and not just because Jim Lehrer had not. She pretty much let them go without the anal "me-me-ME!- that Romney had insisted on in his first go 'round with Obama.

Of course, I fucking loved Joe Biden's mugging and laughing and his full range of emotions while Paul Ryan spewed lie after lie. It was the smackdown we wished Obama had given Romney and- better- it was the smackdown republicans think Romney gave Obama. It was fun to watch!

I'd like to see more debates like it. We don't want a Memorizer In Chief whether he's an us or a them. I think the debate formats are the way they are because that's what the parties agree to because that's the way they've always been. And one will be a Town Hall format so, there's that. Some pizza guy (not Herman Cain, is promising free pizza for life to any citizen who wastes the nation's time by asking if the candidates prefer sausage or pepperoni. Maybe the pizza for life is a threat. I don't know. Whatever, it's not the sort of free-form debate O'Donnell or Ferrerman is advocating.

I would like to see limited audience participation with questions of the non-pizza variety. I'd like to hear the people laughing at any zingers even if they're planned and, especially if they are truly off the cuff. And, groaning at lies and deflections from the R's is our right as citizens. So much of our political process is a dog and pony show. Let's let these guys go at it. Make them defend lies or policies to be explained later.  Make them answer to us... It is about us, isn't it?

No decaf, please.