“When did you become a Republican?” and “Why should people believe you?” are supposed to be tough questions? Those sound like softballs to me. They’re fluff questions that allow candidates to respond with soundbites.
Tough questions would be asking something like “You say we should repair our infrastructure and claim you would support a program to do so. But in the last five years you’ve been in office you have not introduced a single bill for infrastructure repair. How do you reconcile the gap between what you’ve said and what you’ve done?”
I’d have asked ‘structurally, HOW do you intend to bring about your estimated 4% economic growth in the US, especially considering the current world wide economic down turn in Europe and China?’ THAT is putting foot to fire…especially if you actually make the various candidates answer the question and interrupt them repeatedly if they start to wander off topic or are giving pat, boiler plated answers. Personally, this is why I don’t really find much meat in any of these debates, whoever is doing them.
This is the issue. There is no debate. It’s merely a simultaneous interview. Yes, interviews have their place but we shouldn’t confuse them with, or be substituting them for, actual debates. Candidates should be the ones asking questions and calling out their opponents for nonanswers.
*“I think we all realize you aren’t a scientist but it seems to me that since you voted to require transvaginal ultrasounds then you should be able to explain what they are and why they are important. Do you often vote in favor of things you know nothing about? Do you think that is the kind of representative Americans deserve?” *
Another problem is the respondents thinking how absurd of a question it is and just saying “yes” to fuck with the pollsters.
Plus these are yes/no questions answered on the spot. Maybe someone just doesn’t like Obama and answers “yes” to simply show his disapproval. That doesn’t mean that they have thoughtfully considered and come to the conclusion that Obama is indeed the entity referenced in the Book of Revelation.
I’ve been hearing this same claim for decades and have absolutely no idea how a reasonable person could possibly believe it. I have never seen an iota of evidence or any serious inquiry or study showing this to be true.
Sorry. My point was that, IMO, the softball question came from FB, and thus is somewhat unfair to blame the moderators for these less-than-stellar questions.
IMO, this merely shows why it might not be a good idea to open a direct channel (via social media) between the viewers and the candidates. You’re going to get some goofy (or softball) questions. You’re going to have to have some kind of filter to block to silliest ones, and even with that, the process will be nitpicked by those folks unhappy with the results.
Whom do you consider a “liberal” that asks the president a question during a debate? Bob Schieffer, anchor emeritus at CBS News?
Every now and then I hear some conservative trotting out this stupid generalization, and I imagine them shaking their head mournfully, with fake wisdom and sadness at the inability of liberals to participate respectfully in a liberal democracy. I imagine Fox News playing in the background while they shake their head, with Megyn Kelly or Steve Doocy or Bill O’Reilly or Ann Coulter ranting about evil liberals.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re evil, but as far as your OP goes, that’s some serious delusion.
According to that survey, “20% of Republicans believe that President Obama is the Anti-Christ, compared to 13% of independents and 6% of Democrats who agree”. (I’m not sure about the discrepancy between 22% and 20%.)
Also: “5% of respondents believe that Paul McCartney died and was secretly replaced in the Beatles in 1966, and just 4% believe shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining power. 7% of voters think the moon landing was fake.”
I tend to think the percentages in that survey are all inflated. It’s possible that people who believe in various conspiracy theories, who tend to be more passionate about their views, are more likely to participate in surveys about the subject.
On looking a bit further, it looks like the 22% is of Romney voters, and the 20% is of Republicans. On that note, the percentage of people who believed Obama is the anti-Christ but voted for him anyway is 5%. (8% of people who described themselves as “very liberal” believed this, as did 9% of African-Americans.)
Apparently the Lizard People thing is a Republican thing - 5% of Romney voters versus 2% of Obama voters. Who knew? (It’s about as common among very liberal people as among very conservative people - these are by far the highest groups, least common among somewhat liberals, and pretty low among others.)
OTOH, 17% of Obama voters (in that survey) believe the CIA spread crack in inner cities (versus 10% of Romney supporters! - interestingly, it’s a lot more common among very conservative people than among somewhat conservative people.)
Surprisingly, believing that “Big Pharma” invent diseases in order to profit from curing them is more common among Romney voters than Obama voters (17% versus 11%).
[Sorry for the thread hijack. Pretty interesting survey, though IMO likely overstated as above.]
Yep those were real softball questions asked:rolleyes:: http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-1-2012-the-second-obama-romney-presidential-debate CROWLEY: Mr. President, could you address, because we did finally get to gas prices here, could you address what the governor said, which is if your energy policy was working, the price of gasoline would not be $4 a gallon here. Is that true?
Or they accidentally check the wrong box. Or they just answer at random. And there’s the Jay-Walking conundrum- Jay Leno used to walk around and ask simple questions. Only people who answered wrong- and as wrong as possible got to be on TV. In fact if you were really fucking stupid sounding you even got to be a guest!
Now, let us say you’d like to be on TV- *would you give the right answer or a dumb answer? * People are smarter than you think- and dumber than you can imagine.
Like that idiot offering people silver bars vs chocolate bars.
Every now and then I hear some conservative trotting out this stupid generalization, and I imagine them shaking their head mournfully, with fake wisdom and sadness at the inability of liberals to participate respectfully in a liberal democracy. I imagine Fox News playing in the background while they shake their head, with Megyn Kelly or Steve Doocy or Bill O’Reilly or Ann Coulter ranting about evil liberals.