If the polls remain the same - TV Debates should decide the Race

As much as it has been well documented that Al Gore should indeed have won Florida and the election in 2000, it truly shouldn't have been that close. Had Al Gore done a better job during the debates, it still would've been close, but he should have won without the whole recount debacle.

For those of you who remember, Gore clearly had a better agenda regarding policy related questions where as Bush stuck to his 'I'm a compassionate uniter' stance. The result, Gore becoming enraged and acting like a bully on stage, essentially losing all of the 'character swing votes' in the process. Losing your cool no matter how moronic you think your opposition is answering questions, is a recipe for disaster.

Unfortunately, this is the way of the country. The reason why there are so few respectable candidates in elected positions these days is generally because most people are more concerned with style over substance. People don't bother to research and understand the messages, they just look at the messenger. Its these 'character' votes that are crucial in close elections. In a way, its almost as if the election process has taken an American Idol type spin.

This style over substance may prove my beliefs in the debate wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bush campaign makes things interesting and more favorable for him. Perhaps, he'll try and push for the debates to be on traditionally slow television evenings (primetime West Coast Sunday evening) or even audit the questions, especially those concerning foriegn policy saying that his strategies and information shouldn't be heard by terrorists (similar to how he wouldn't allow the 9/11 inquisition out from behind closed doors).

Hopefully none of this proves true and there is a straight, honest, issue driven debate in front of a large audience. If this happens, I think Kerry will clearly dent Bush's awshucks armor and have a good chance to unseat him in November.

 

It has long been practice for all candidates to receive the scripted questions well in advance of all televised debates. Both sides have plenty of time to prepare their soundbites for the cameras.

 

Oh, I am fully aware of the candidates receiving the questions in advance, however, even if Bush had Tom Clancy write his script last election, he still bumbled his way through and I believe would do the same this time around. Its for this reason as well that I have concern that Bush may influence what types of questions can be asked based upon a position of 'national secuity'.

 

Thats why he has his pet attack dog, Rove. Can't have any potentially embarrassing or otherwise in depth questioning which might show the public the reality behind the rhetoric.

In the end, televised debates are just another pablum filled vehicle for the advertisers.

 

Al Gore should have won the election? Al Gore did win the popular election even after the numerous recounts. Thankfully our forefathers were smart and realized that the generla public is not smart enough to decide on the president and made the electoral college.

 

I was actually refering to Florida, hence the electoral college in addition to the popular vote. Had the black vote not been maliciously disenfranchised as it was in 2000, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

Catherine Harris, George Bush's campaign manager in florida, and coincidently enough the person in charge of the re-counts, hired a company called DBT to purge their voter rolls of felons who have lost the right to vote in Florida. The list was amazingly inaccurate, i can undersatnd, maybe 1%, possibly even 2% being errors, but it turns out 95% of the 56,000 people on the rolls had their votes illegaly taken away from them. This came a shock to most people, once they tried to vote being told they were convicted felons, and the sadly funny thing is that some of their crimes were committed in THE FUTURE.
Oh yeah, the rolls were prodominently black and poor, two of the democrats largest bases (90% of black people voted democrat last time around.)
And the reason we have an electoral college is to a) actually go to washington, this wasn't an easy task back in the 1800s, b) balance out the states, and c) to confuse everyone.