First Presidential Debate

The first debate between George Bush 2 and John Kerry will be happening tonight live from the University of Miami. I suggest catching it on c-span to avoid the idiot talking heads on the news channels chiming in with their usual crap. If you don't have access to that channel, then PBS is a good second choice. Try not to break your tv with the urge to toss things at it if it turns out to be a wussy debate, thanks to the ridiculous laundry list of stupid rules they both agreed to before doing this. God-forbid we have a free form discussion on live television between two guys who want to run the damn country. They can take shots at each other in all those commercials and at campaign stops, but face to face on live teleivion? Oh no. We apparently can't have that. Obviously there should be common courtesy related ground rules, like, say, not being able to call someone a dumb fuck and make goofy faces at them off camera. Other than that, let them go at it.

Critics assail rule book for presidential debates - Scripps Howard

No props, notes, charts or diagrams. No opening statements. No referencing an audience member during a debate. And no direct candidate-to-candidate questioning.

When President Bush and Sen. John Kerry begin the first of three presidential debates Thursday night, they will follow rules set out in a 30-page document signed by both campaigns that hashes out details ranging from audience members to podium height.

Critics say the rules make the event less of a debate than a 90-minute long spin session that falls woefully short of interaction between the two candidates.

"College debate teams wouldn't consider presidential debates to be real," said Chris Shaw, organizing director of Open Debates, a nonpartisan group that aims to reform the debates. "Real debates have back and forth dialogue."

Debates Already Rigged - American Free Press

The Republican and Democratic parties, fearful of issues promoted by third parties, have rigged the so-called presidential debates, experts told a Washington press conference Sept. 7.

“For the last 16 years, the general election presidential debates have been controlled by a private, tax-exempt corporation—the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)—that has deceptively served the interests of the Republican and Democratic parties at the expense of the American people,” their report said.

“Behind closed doors, negotiators for the national parties jointly draft debate contracts,” it said. They “dictate precisely how the debates will be run—from decreeing who can participate, to selecting who will ask the questions, to ordaining the temperature in the auditorium.”