The debates

John Podhoretz on the elevated tone we can expect:
The only way these debates will matter is if they are exciting. And the only way to ensure that people keep watching them as the months pass, and thereby create a sense that the Democratic Party is full of life, is if these first debates reward their interest with fireworks.
It’s the shmendricks who need to set the debate hall on fire — you know, the ones you’ve never heard of, like the governors of Climatechangiana and Potsmokia and the House members from Whereverdude and Freestuffistan.
If only I had more confidence one of those guys wasn't going to end up with the nomination.

5 comments:

E Hines said...

It's interesting, too, that the only ones carrying the networks are NBC and a Spanish language channel our cable provider provides.

It's not just that only one network will host this round of debates (and subsequent ones), which is perfectly fine, it's that the DNC has locked out all the other networks, cable and over-the-air, from even covering, at least this week's pair, live. I know Fox will have commentary after the debates, which suggests that network (and likely the others) will have reporters and analysts in the debate halls, but still.

The DNC acts like it's going out of its way to limit the national audience for these debates.

Regarding Freestuffistan and Potsmokia, though, the former is well represented by quasi-frontrunners Sanders and Warren, and those two act like citizens of the latter.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

It's interesting to me that Warren is the only real name in the first debate. Maybe that leads her to stand out; or maybe she gets drowned out by the freak show J Pod is talking about. Or maybe she ends up looking like she's seated at the kiddie table at Thanksgiving, and people stop taking her seriously when she's not at the big show with Biden and Bernie and Kamala.

E Hines said...

I'm not sure what's going on with the allocation of candidates to debate nights. It could be the luck of the random assignment that the DNC claims is the case.

It could be, though, the DNC sabotaging Warren the way it did last time around with Sanders.

Eric Hines

Christopher B said...

Eric, my understanding is that the Dems did a random draw for the two debates, unlike the GOP in 2016 which did a deliberate 'undercard' of low polling candidates.

J Melcher said...

If the nation continues with the large slates of wanna-be candidates like Reps in 2015 and now Dems in 2019, we need a new "debate" concept. And label for it -- "debate" is not what we're seeing.

I think we need gamification. And see the wanna-be voted off the island weeek after week ...

If a moderator is needed Alex Trebek, Steve Harvey ...