Was the Kerry-Bush Match a Real Debate?
Oct. 1, 2004 — -- Did you watch the presidential candidates' first matchup? It was more of a real debate than people expected. But still it was so much less than it might have been.
It looked as if they were going to go at each other, but then moderator Jim Lehrer listed the rules.
For each question the candidates could offer only a two-minute response, a 90-second rebuttal and, at Lehrer's discretion, a discussion extension of one minute. A green light came on when 30 seconds remained in any given answer, yellow at 15 seconds, red at five.
The political class has done it to us again. Republicans and Democrats got together and crafted rules to try to prevent anything surprising or revealing from happening.
When John Kerry said, "I have a better plan for homeland security," I wanted President Bush to ask him, "Exactly what is that plan?" But that wasn't allowed.
And when the president said that "75 percent of known al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice," I thought the Massachusetts senator would say, "But haven't those leaders been replaced by even more people who hate us?" But because the candidates weren't supposed to talk to each other, we voters had fewer opportunities to hear the candidates argue their points.
The contract for this year's debates is unbelievable, running 30-some pages. And the rules governing every aspect of the debate are endless:
The parties want to have a monopoly over presidential debates they can control, said George Farah, author of No Debate, which details how the established parties — in secret — agreed to rules that stifle debate.
"What kind of debate prohibits the candidates from actually talking to each other? That's not a debate. That's a glorified bipartisan press conference," Farah said.
Thursday night it brought us a lot of tedious repetition. President Bush repeatedly said Saddam Hussein was a threat. John Kerry's mantra was "win the peace."
Related Stories
ABC News Live