Presidential Debate, T.S. Khanna, October 17,2015

Foundation for Better Government

(www.bettergovt.blogspot.com)

October 17, 2015.

Presidential Debates

By T.S. Khanna, October 17,2015

The purpose of presidential debate of the same party candidates should be to enable the audience of the party to select the most suitable candidate to compete with the opposition in the general election.  The last two recent debates, Republican and Democrat, though intended for that purpose, were not designed for that purpose.

Some suggestions:

• Each candidate of the party may be required to post his/her election manifesto on the internet, eight weeks prior to the debate.
• The Chairperson of the party, with an input from members of the party, may prepare a set of questions for each candidate.
• The Chairperson of the party, instead of the TV News-persons, may ask the questions, allowing appropriate response time, not the 30-second sound bites.
• Number of questions and the response time must be equal for each candidate, not the lopsided time distribution, as observed in the recent debates.
• The candidates may be allowed equal opportunity to ask one another questions, but not allowed to make any derogatory remarks about each other.  Decency and etiquette must maintained in political affairs.
• Before the end of the debate, each candidate may be allowed equal time to make his/her case to distinguish him/her-self as the best choice.