Bored?

Someone wrote to me and asked how could I possibly have been bored by the debate since he thought it was quite lively.

I was and is bored by most of these things because of their nature. It's ridiculous questions posed for the most part with canned answers by both sides. A true debate would be something like the moderator picks 5 topics. Say taxes, energy, Iraq, education, health care. Then each of those topics is debated for 16 minutes, with each side getting an alternating minute. That's a true, point counterpoint debate. And you get to learn about the big picture of where candidates stand on an issue. And you can't fake something like that. Either you know what you're talking about or you don't.

Think of the debates like a history final. The debates as are set up now, are like a pop quiz. If you stay up the night before and memorize dates and places, you'll do well. It's also meaningless as 2 days later you forget everything. The exam should be essay based instead where you get 2 topics and have to write 1000 words for each. You can't cram for a test like that, you have to know the whole story and explain your thoughts in detail.

Honestly had I been an "independent" or even worse "undecided" voter, nothing from last night would have changed my mind on anything. Let's see they both think the economy should be strong, they both think education is important and they both hope that the president won't die in office. Gee thanks, now I am so much more informed.