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As a former debate coach and instructor of a second in the state team, I can tell you that these are not debates. What television puts before us does not do anything to advance the art of rhetorical or persuasive speaking. In fact, all that these two-hour long conundrums have become are pointed and loaded questions from pundits looking for sound bytes for their networks or to be posted for the youtubed nation.

To what extent does asking Dennis Kucinich if he saw an UFO have anything to do with leading our nation? None. The acronym stands for Unidentified Flying Object, it does not translate into Flying Saucer Freakazoid. Like the late General William Westmoreland who ran as the vice-Presidential with Ross Perot, Kucinich's greatest error is allowing himself to be made a fool of on television. These are intelligent individuals who must fear the doomsday video clip ala Howard Dean; single out one brief Woo-hoo' of a hoarse man and the media pounces it on it like jackals circling a wounded rabbit.

It is impossible to have an open and honest debate with more than two players. For one thing, eight candidates appear, each gets asked a different question. No one else gets to respond. When another candidate gets his or her own question, they spend most of the time reacting to what some other candidate said about his or her earlier question. This is group Tekken with only one fighter left standing after everyone uses his or her own special power to knock someone out or deflect a power blast directed at the last speaker.

There can only be two sides to the issue when debating: Affirmative or Negative. And, there is only one topic, not a smorgasbord of hot ticket items to bandy about to snare a candidate in a lie or trip the candidate up without a direct answer. The Lincoln-Douglas debates during the 1858 election set a standard that modern media has ignored: Two candidates discussing single issues at a time and presenting each candidates appropriate view and stance. These were not the Clinton-Obama-Romney-Giuliani- McCain-Hewey-Dewey-and-Louie debates for a reason.

Save the debates for the final candidates. And for those who say the two party system doesn't work, use a BCS ranking order and pair up the candidates in flights, score them appropriately, and advance the winners of each until there are only two still in the running. By these standards, only the two best should be in the finals.

Wouldn't that make for interesting politics in a democracy?

Learn more about this author, Jack Bates.
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