Sunday, April 20, 2008

Suddenly Obama Calls for Substantive Debates -- What Hypocrisy!

Last week, despite my better judgment, I found myself watching the beginning of the ABC presidential "debate" (or as Ralph Nader describes them, sleep-inducing "parallel interviews") with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. By now everyone's heard about the resulting "controversy."

Even during the debate Obama and Clinton were saying we need to talk more about the issues, Obama called for more substantive debate. Afterwards, petitions circulated online, thousands wrote to ABC upset supposedly because the debates should address important issues and inform voters. What a joke! Where have all these petition signers and letter writers been the last 20 years?!

The only reason they care now is because their candidate, Obama in particular, got trashed on national television this time. If only they cared about having more substance even when they didn't think it would help their guy, even when Obama is avoiding the issues. But that would be democracy, wouldn't it?

...That would mean being willing to talk about cracking down on corporate crime & welfare or discuss cutting (rather than increasing) the wasteful military budget. That would mean including more voices.

You want substance? Let Nader debate! If your guy is so good on the issues, what is there to be afraid of?

Some background:

In 1988, the League of Women Voters stopped sponsoring the presidential debates and wrote the following:

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates ... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.

Since then the debates have been run by a private entity, funded by corporate contributions[1], known as the Commission on Presidential Debates--co-chaired by past heads of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee[2]. Check out www.OpenDebates.org for more information and ideas on how to take back the debates.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates
[2] http://www.opendebates.org/theissue/whatisthecdp.html