The Debate Over Debates

When I read about the scheduled debates between Rex Rammell and Larry LaRocco, my mind keeps playing the “Odd Couple” Theme.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUafUc1Z_q8[/youtube]

Okay, they may be polar opposites, but they both want to beat Jim Risch, and their plan is to hold ten debates across the State to attract attention. For his part, Lieutenant Governor Risch’s campaign has said there’s one scheduled debate on October 21st and they’re working on others.

The Risch campaign is correct that asking for a ton of debates is the tactic of a campaign that’s not doing well. The more debates you have, the more likely a candidate is to slip and have a huge gaffe that his opponents can take advantage of. If you’re behind, you want as many debates as possible, if you’re ahead, you’ll want fewer. This is life.

I have sympathies both ways. In an ideal world, we’d have a high number of Senate debates. They’d be held in larger and medium towns. People in Boise would be so concerned to hear what the candidates had to say that we would pack out Bronco Stadium. Then, it’d be the same thing in the Idaho Center in Nampa.

Reality? If 3,000 people total see the ten Unger-Madison-er-Rammell-LaRocco debates, it’ll be a miracle. Unlike the debate on October 21, none of these debates will be televised. The vast majority of Idahoans won’t even know about the debates and perhaps 10-20% of us will read a blurb in the newspaper about the debate.  What will  the blurb have in it? A couple shots across the bow at Jim Risch, some brief cerebral ideological debate, and then on to the next story.

As a candidate, it’s troubling if the only way people know of the debate is through the newspaper, particularly if you suspect media bias. You could spend two hours debating and all that gets reported is one or two exchanges where you don’t come off particularly well.

More televised debates would be better, but not too many. I think most people can agree twenty Republican Presidential Debates was overkill. Probably around three televised debates would be good, along with a few others on the radio, via Internet video, podcast, or if one wants to get really high tech, through AOL Instant Messenger Chat.

As for the “Odd Couple” Debates, I think they serve a different time in politics that, quite sadly, has passed.