Presidential Debates -- These were not!

Did any of you watch this year's Presidential Debates?  Pretty exciting huh? 

Honestly, I am not sure what kind of idiot you would have to be to NOT have made up your mind prior to this debate.  But nevertheless I think the debates could have merit and that we should continue this tradition but we have to fix the format.

 

As always, let's start the discussion with a little history lesson.  The first "televised" Presidental Debates occured in 1960 and were sponsored by the television networks themselves.  The 1960 Debate was between Richard Nixon and John Kenneday and was watched by 61% of the potential voters or 66.4 million viewers (the third debate in 2012 was watched by 24.6% of the potential voters or 59.2 million views .. but it was up against Monday Night Football Source, Source). 

 

In 1976, the Debate was sponsored by the independent League of Women Voters (Gerald Ford versus Jimmy Carter).  In 1980, we see the appearance of the first Independance particpant in the Debate, John Anderson a former congressman from Illinois.  It was their (LWV) practice to include ALL candidates who had the credentials to be on the ballot. 

 

However by 1988, politics had intervened and the independent and non-partisan League of Women Voters refused to bend to Democratic and Republican pressures to draw up a contract prior to the 1988 presidential debates.  The "Partys" wanted to limit particiaption to their candidates or someone who had equal stature (which meant nobody else since there was no such group).  When asked why they (LWV) withdrew from participation, their President Nancy Neuman said of the situation:

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. (Source)

Since 1988, the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit corporation became responsible for the Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates.  (non-profit does not mean pure)  According to their new rules, all third-party candidates must have at least 15 percent support in at least five national polls to participate in the Debate.   While 15% does not sound like a lot at first, remember that the winner will likely have 55% of the vote POST debate and election.  It is almost impossible for a third party candidate to poll at 15% PRIOR to the Debate since most folks have not heard of them. 

In the 2008 election, 77 individuals filed "Presidential Exploratory Papers" and while the Commission allowed the voters to hear from Rudy Guliana and Fred Thompson (who did not have the required pole numbers) they were "out of chairs" for Dr. Ron Paul a 30 year representative from Texas who did pole at the required level.  Party Politics owns the debates.

We have to change ownership of the debates back to the independent League of Women Voters or some other similar independent organization.  We need to allow all real candidates to be heard and hopefully a real leader will emerge.

As a patriotic precaution, I am grooming my son Griffin to be this leader guy if someone else does not jump in there prior.  I do not want that responsibility for him since he is just a happy normal kid.  But without leaders, his future and his children's future will be in trouble too.  God bless the Schofields and America.