Reply #15: Really? I rarely run into anyone who has seen ONE.

[donco6]

Or even a part of one. They may say they base their decision on the debates, but what they're really basing it on is the MSM snippets from the debate - the stupid faux pas, the "stair stumble" how their hair looked - along with the MSM interpretation of those peripheral events.

I think the audiences were different back in the Nixon/Kennedy days - I think more people actually watched the news and cared about what was going on. Even in the Reagan days, I doubt the candidates could have been allowed to slide by with these cursory puff pieces they do now.

But now it takes just the slightes provocation to get the MSM to veer off into Stupidland. Suddendly the conversations are about Brittney and Paris. Or whether Obama called McSame a "racist" or not - never mind having an actual conversation about "race" itself. It's all so Lowest Common Denominator, and the LCD is one who watches American Idol and I Survived a Japanese Game Show.

That's why I think the debates - thought necessary and good for America - will not result in anything.