Raise your hands

[dalaigh lllama]

by Miles Mogulescu in the Huffington post

Raise Your Hands if Presidential Debate Moderators Should Stop Asking Candidates to Answer Policy Questions by Raising Their Hands

It's bad enough that candidates have to sum up their stands on complicated issues in 15, 30 or 60 second sound bites. Now they're being asked to do it by raising their hands in response to over-simplified hypothetical questions, like a bunch of kindergarten students. Moderator Wolf Blitzer used this tactic at least 4 times during Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate, usually to try to make those who didn't immediately raise their hands look weak on national security.

Such tactics demean the moderating journalists, the candidates and the American people. Is this any way to pick the most powerful leader in the world? Could one find a better example of what Al Gore has called The Assault on Reason in the title to his new book?

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/raise-your-hands-if-presi_b_50681.html


Why, Leslie should have just sang:

If you're tough and we should know it, raise your hands
If you're tough and we should know it, raise your hands
If you're tough and we should know it, raising hands will surely show it
If you're tough and we should know it, raise your hands

[oberliner]

1. It is so stupid

There is no debating in these debates.

[dalaigh lllama]

3. Yeah, we've gone from 30 second soundbites to

raising hands. Soon we'll be "debating" using grunts, grimaces, and eyerolls, just like Commander Guy.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. You're out ! Simon didn't say to bomb Iran. Please sit down. nt.

[dalaigh lllama]

4. snort...

:rofl:


that'll probably be the debate format in another few years, at the rate we're going.

[Patsy Stone]

5. Each debate

should be in a different game show format. We whittle down the field until the final three have to play a week of Tournament of Champions Jeopardy, and finish in November when the remaining two have to complete the Sunday NYT crossword in under five minutes.

[dalaigh lllama]

6. Are you series!1!1!

Everyone knows Jeopardy and NYT crossword puzzles are just for know-it-alls. Better to put them in a format like Deal or No Deal, where their ability to point, prance, pout, and please the man behind the curtain are paramount!1!1!

[Patsy Stone]

7. There are so many debates scheduled,

and we still have to eliminate a lot of candidates, every show could have its chance. The Family Feud, Hollywood Squares, Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter Than George Bush a Fifth Grader?, and so on. Instead of moderators, we could have game show hosts.

Think about this; it could work. Get Mark Burnett on the phone! I smell summer replacement series.