Wednesday, October 8, 2008

#91 The "Town (Without Pity) Hall" Debate

This'll be short, because that's all it's worth. Let's play the "blame game" again: Who-in-the-bloody-Hell came up with the idea for this fright show?! Whoever it was, he/she would have been in danger of their life had they shown up on the set--the pugnacious little time-bomb McCain, pacing murderously throughout, would have beaten Whoever to a pulp right then and there. The incredibly composed Obama might even have jumped in to help.

The first debate had a few sparks, at least ... short of a conflagration. But the faux-format here (about as far from a real town meeting as you can get) dampened down the proceedings from the git-go. Gosh-darn-it, we got two different debates again, like the VP affair, but this time it seemed all but planned that way. Here's what we saw: one-at-a-time questions to the candidates one-at-a-time, separately and randomly, with no follow-up or rebuttal or cross-referencing to speak of--providing the candidates with the luxury of two-minute sound-bites from their already prepared and well-rehearsed speeches that we've all heard before ... too many times now. High drama. And where did they get that zombie-like audience?! I know, having lived in Nashville during my Vanderbilt years--right off the drugged-out avenues of Music Row. Out-of-work "session" back-ups maybe. Well, they might have been Belmont College shills, after all, but I swear if you had shone a strobe-light on the proceedings, the only object in motion would have been the peripatetic Mr. McCain.

Who won? Nobody. Which means Obama did. It occurs to me that after the upcoming third-and-last Presidential debate, I may not even be alive to see another one. OK.
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