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The Democratic Debate
It's too late to let EURSOC's readers know this now, but if you happened to have been in the US Monday evening and had trouble getting to sleep, the Democratic Candidate Presidential "debate' provided the potion.
Of course, Presidential "debates" in this country ceased resembling real debates some years ago. They are simply mini-press conferences for each candidate to hold forth on his/her positions on a variety of topics. The biggest reason for these "debates" isn't so much for the candidates, but for the self appointed media "experts" to tell us who won and who lost. Even this arrogant enterprise is laughable: the pundits tell us Hillary Clinton carried the day (night), but viewers, via online polls, placed Barak Obama as the clear winner (they gave Mrs. Clinton 4th place).
And this debate featured something new, something that one would have thought commanded attention: all questions came from citizens who posted their inquiries through the website YouTube. Alas, they were the same bill of fare we have come to expect from Democratic party camp followers: "As president, how do you plan to raid the Federal treasury to fund programs I support (especially, in this regard a national healthcare policy)?"
So much attention was paid to this novel format that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh observed, "Everyone says the debate broke new ground, but when the questions overshadow the answers, what does that say about the candidates?"
November 2008 cannot come soon enough.
