My View: Debate, Deschmate

By News Director Bob Longo

POSTED: 2:54 pm EDT September 29, 2004

Debate, deschmate. Calling this first Presidential "get-together" in Miami Thursday night a "debate" seems a little far-fetched, don't you think?

Let's forget for a moment which side you're on. Put yourself in a place where it doesn't matter who you're rooting for. Ready?

Good. Now, you've seen enough of these by now to know that except for the rarest of instances, both candidates will use all the time allotted to them not to answer questions, but to quickly slide into their well-oiled and smooth stump speech rhetoric. Rhetoric that, nine times out of 10, sounds great, but doesn't answer the question asked. Ignores it, in fact.

It is a shame, really, that no one has yet to devise rules to actually hold the candidates to the simplest of expectations -- that they at least answer the question. I mean, these two men who want to take us boldly into the future ought to have a lot to say. They ought to be prepared, poised and ready to duke it out verbally. To talk about anything. Any time.

But sadly, being forced to answer the questions, apparently, is left out of the 32-page agreement signed by both the Bush and Kerry camps. An agreement that covers such important things as the height of the podiums, how and if candidate rebuttals can be rebutted, camera angles and every other "little thing" you could imagine.

Sounds pretty petty, until you think about it for a minute. Think long and hard about what you remember most about U.S. Presidential debates.

It's the little things. A nuanced look. A quick turn of phrase. A sweaty upper lip. The world would be a very different place, indeed, if not for some of these "little things."

I'm surprised it wasn't a 42-page letter of agreement! Of course the handlers are sweating the details. They've got the big policy statements drilled into their candidates' heads. It's the little things they can't control -- and are trying desperately to do so -- that worries them most.

Yes sir, even the camera angles are covered. The Bush and Kerry camps agreed they don't want their man looking silly, stupid or unprepared, so they've agreed to ban certain camera shots.

The only trouble is, the networks have not agreed to ban those shots. Fox News is the "pool" network feed for Thursday's debate. They control several cameras and feed those video lines to all the networks, who in turn, piece those visuals together while the debate -- err, deschmate -- rolls on. Even Fox News isn't going to censor the deschmate.

"The campaigns have agreed to this," said Princell Hair, CNN general manager. "We haven't.

"We have access to these cameras and we're going to -- as we would with any news event -- decide which is the best way to broadcast this," he said. "A producer in the booth will make those determinations, not some people in the campaign."

Amen Princell. Here's to the little things in life. May they be many and may they entertain us and help shape our future.

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