The "Debate"

Since the earliest days that I've paid attention to politics (back when Carter was President) I've felt that the television debates were a stinking crock of shit. It's only gotten worse over the years and finally it seems the television hosts scraped bottom with this last Democratic debate. The candidates have not been anywhere near as vomitous as Bush (the blubbering retard) or Gore (who sounded like a childless professor trying to speak to a room full of four year olds) but they did show they were cowards like we all know Democrats to be. Obama should have walked the fuck out of their after the second or third question and Hillary should have applauded him and left as well. But neither has the balls to stand up to those worthless bastards that play acted as moderators when they were in fact standing in for Rush Limbaugh and the like.

Only David Brooks would give these guys an "A" which he did. What a tool. (I guess he fits into "the like," don't you think?)

That's all I'm going to say about this. I think the 19000+ comments on ABC's site or the endless ranting here, here, here, and here. Really say all that needs to be said. Here are some samples:

A few from ABC's page:

After watching that sorry display of a debate you might as well plan on having Charlie Gibson and George Sthephanopolus on Dancing with the Stars.

so disappointed in ABC news! where are the issues? give me a break. don't waste our time. ask questions about healthcare, iraq, economy, foreign policy. i hope these questions come up soon!

I think George's EGO and long held grudges against any politicians are showing.

PLEASE !!! We don't care about these petty issues.We want to know how they plan to fix things !!!!!!!!!!!!!We want to know about the ISSUES !!Come on, moderators... get it real, this is our last chance to really hear them.

A few from a Moveon.org e-mail:

"A stinker, an absolute car crash—thanks to the host network ABC...[It] ran the gamut from banal to inane. At the end of the debate members of the crowd appeared to be booing moderator Charlie Gibson."—The Guardian's Richard Adams²

"Halfway through the debate, not a single question on any policy issue had been asked."—OpenLeft.com's Chris Bowers³

"For the first 52 minutes...Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with."—Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales.⁴

"We've revisited bitter. We've gone back to Bosnia. We've dragged Rev. Wright back up onto the podium. We've mis-spent this debate by allowing Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos to ask questions that skirt what in my mind is what we need to know now."—Philadelphia Inquirer's Daniel Rubin⁵

1. "Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals," Editor & Publisher, April 16, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3580&id=12458-5608649-z6xDmR&t=6

2. "Worst. Debate. Ever." The Guardian blog, April 16, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3582&id=12458-5608649-z6xDmR&t=7

3. "Philadelphia Debate Thread," Chris Bowers, OpenLeft.com, April 16, 2008
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5195

4. "In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC," Washington Post, April 17, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3581&id=12458-5608649-z6xDmR&t=8

5. "The Debate Debacle," The Philadelphia Inquirer blog, April 16, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3583&id=12458-5608649-z6xDmR&t=9

From USA Today:

Guardian America's deadlineUSA blog issues its verdict with the headline: "Worst. Debate. Ever."

The Washington Post's TV critic says Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos "turned in shoddy, despicable performances."

"For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with," Tom Shales writes.

ABC is trying to pretend there's a little debate going on amongst media types and barely mentions that they have been roundly criticized across almost the entire media spectrum (we all know the far right mouthpiece machine was throwing victory parties after this travesty), as well as tens of thousands of Americans. It's sad that this is what American broadcasting has fallen to. Even our Presidential debates differ from Jerry Springer only that there are no chairs being thrown.