I don't think we wand the moderators to control what kind of information the candidates offer. It is up to the voters to reward or punish candidates who choose to offer less information. Indeed, I think we are seeing evidence that this is what is happening; most observers thought that Trump spent more time in both debates avoiding and deflecting, he was judged to have lost both debates, and his polling numbers went way down after the first, and may well go down after the second (it will be hard to determine this for sure, as it will interact with the Video fall out).
In Debate II the moderators were not tasked with asking questions, but they were involved in selecting questions, and did follow up. There were several non-substantive questions (particularly the first that you mention, and the last), but even these were not of the "boxers or briefs" variety, and were at least to some extent relevant to the decision voters have to make, in terms of character and temperament. But there really were a number of very substantive questions, about energy and Syria and tax policy, about Hillary's relationship with Wall Street and her email issues, about Trump's video comments (Cooper held his feet to the fire on this, and insisted on referring to it as "sexual assault", and got Trump to go on the record denying that he had ever done any of the things he boasted about, which will be a problem if anyone later goes on the record saying that Trump groped or kissed them without permission. I am not by any means defending the dignity of the events, or saying they are ideal ways of communicating with voters. But I doubt many Americans actually get anywhere near as much substantive information in any 90 minute block of time during the entire year as they do during the debates. I don't know if you have ever read the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (or watched the great series on C-Span some years ago), which are often assumed to be the gold standard for debates. They are fascinating, but I doubt very much that the current American electorate would really be up for a three hour debate consisting of first a 60 minute speech, then a 90 minute speech, then a 30 minute response. If it were up to me they would have fewer questions and maybe 5 minutes for each response, rather than 2 minutes, but as it is I still think they serve a useful purpose. And I would rate the moderators from Sunday night as the best of the last three cycles or so. On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > > I don't dispute information was desciminated. What I claim is the > moderators had next to no control over what information (talking > points/passages from stump speech) the candidates chose to offer. The very > first question was about what the candidates would tell children -- neither > candidate came close to an answer. And it was like that most of the > evening. > > The biggest obstacle in trying to get information from these two > particular candidates is in order to get to the information, voters have to > endure name calling, shouting, accusations, and interruptions. I don't know > how many voters came from a home where parents fought, but from my > experience, when mommy and daddy argue, the kids cover their ears and look > away until the shouting stops. Yes, Hilary offered specific details about > her health care plan, but to get to it, voters had to endure the proverbial > mommy and daddy fighting... if I was an undecided voter, I would not be > motivated to listen to anything said after one candidate repeatedly calls > the other a liar and one candidate threatens the other with prison. A > debate moderator is charged with keeping the candidates in check. At best, > last night's moderators served as time-keepers. > > >> As we all remember from our junior high school history classes (and now I >> guess from Broadway Musicals) democracy has always been a high BS >> enterprise. That is part of the price we pay. All the more reason it is >> important to have some ways of managing the BS and try to keep the playing >> field level. I thought the moderators last night did about as good a job as >> I have ever seen under unusually difficult circumstances. >> >> >> -- >> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... 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