Voices
Formats for the 2012 series, as
proposed by the debate commission, are similar to the ObamaMcCain matches of 2008. Each
debate will run for 90 minutes
and begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
In the first and last, a single moderator will question the candidates, with one program devoted
to domestic issues and the other
to international affairs. In the
town hall debate citizens will pose
questions on topics both international and domestic. The vice
presidential candidates will also
field questions on all subjects,
asked by a moderator.
This year’s vice presidential
debate promises to be a more
substantive exercise than 2008’s
Biden-Palin extravaganza—which,
for the record, outdrew all the
Obama-McCain debates in the
ratings. In that debate handlers
for Sarah Palin negotiated unusually short response times: 90
seconds for a candidate’s initial
answer, followed by two minutes
of “discussion” between debaters—as though any issue of significance could be discussed in two
minutes. The strategy paid off:
at that superficial level Palin was
able to hold her own. Presumably
this year’s Republican vice presi-
ALAN
SCHROEDER
HUFFINGTON
08.12.12
dential candidate will be better
equipped to survive a debate format that calls for ten minutes of
conversation on a specific topic.
Of the different formats to be
employed in 2012, the most problematic is likely to be the town
hall. Once innovative and unpredictable, town hall presidential
debates have become tedious,
thanks to heavy-handed restrictions imposed by the political
handlers who negotiate format details. In 1992, in the
Of the
first-ever town hall
different
presidential debate,
formats to be
no limitations were
employed in
placed on the ques2012, the most
tioners or on modproblematic
erator Carole Simpis likely to be
son, resulting in a
the town hall.”
memorable and enlightening evening of
televised political theater. In subsequent town halls, campaign enforcers reduced the spontaneity
of the questioning and clamped
down on the moderator’s role.
The 2008 town hall debate in
Nashville, choreographed to
within an inch of its life, was the
dullest of the Obama-McCain series and one of the dullest
in American history.