[EM] "Third Parties Presidential Debate"... and debates in general

[James Green-Armytage]

	I just thought that this was generally interesting, and I'm not sure how
long it's going to stay on the C-Span site, so here it is, perhaps for a
limited time only...
http://tinyurl.com/44edh
	I happened upon this debate between Cobb and Badnarik from a week or so
ago, which happened to be co-moderated by Rob Richie, CVD's director.
Needless to say, many of his questions were leading towards alternative
voting systems, and Cobb bit into them with maximum zeal. Yes, Condorcet
was not mentioned (not that I saw), and "full representation" (formerly
known as proportional representation) generally got second billing to IRV.
Anyway, there it is, if anyone wants to see it.
	When I happened on the debate and I started watching it, I was really
excited, because I thought that Cobb and Badnarik were going to really get
down and dirty about the differences between their economic philosophies.
However, as I continued watching, it never got to any direct exchange
between the candidates--they only took questions from the moderators.
Eventually I gave up watching it, because they were just reciting slogans
which I was well familiar with. So I guess what I want to add as a comment
is that it is really important for debates to feature direct exchanges
between the candidates. They need to be able to ask each other questions.
Also, I would prefer it if they were each able to bring forth a certain
number of issues of their own choice to the debate.
	If the candidates don't really exchange, respond to each other's points,
ask each other questions, then I don't think it's really fair to call
something a debate. More like a forum. From the Commission on Presidential
Debates web site 
http://www.debates.org/pages/news_040617.html
it isn't quite clear to me what the rules of engagement will be, but it
says something about direct exchange at least... probably not enough, but
some... I'm also not sure what it means that the first debate will be
covered by FOX. It worries me that the CPD web site doesn't seem to offer
any contact information.

James Green-Armytage