# What "should" be the main issues in the presidential campaign? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 21, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150 "2004-04-21T02:43:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/21 "2004-04-30T00:14:35Z")
It’s also a common mistake to confuse “not a good speaker” with “dull-witted” and “unimaginative”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/22 "2004-04-30T01:02:09Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I’ll settle for a debate where the candidates don’t get to see the questions in advance, and the debate panelists are given free rein to ask anything they deem appropriate. Just watching Bush’s ensuing flop-sweat would be worth it. 😉 Why should there be panelists asking questions? Over here, we’ve just the two candidates arguing with each other, and they’re more likely than any panelist to ask the most embarassing questions to their challenger. And of course, they can’t know the questions in advance. It usually make for a very interesting debate, with sometimes great moments. I wouldn’t want a panelist messing with that. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/23 "2004-04-30T01:30:24Z")
Interesting question, **clairobscur**! I am not sure why the U.S. debates have evolved to this format. It is unfortunate…It would be nice to go to a format more along those lines (with some sort of moderator there to at least insure one candidate doesn’t monopolize all the time). [I believe that in the 2000 race, the Gore campaign did want more give-and-take than the Bush campaign wanted in the debate format, although I am not sure Gore was advocating a complete one-on-one sort of debate.] ---
**Author:** ![iamme99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/57b2e6/32.png) [@iamme99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamme99)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/24 "2004-04-30T01:51:13Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > Interesting question, **clairobscur**! I am not sure why the U.S. debates have evolved to this format. It is unfortunate…It would be nice to go to a format more along those lines (with some sort of moderator there to at least insure one candidate doesn’t monopolize all the time). [I believe that in the 2000 race, the Gore campaign did want more give-and-take than the Bush campaign wanted in the debate format, although I am not sure Gore was advocating a complete one-on-one sort of debate.] Two reasons I can think of - one, the media probably doesn’t want a [figuratively speaking] knock down, bare-knuckle fight because it doesn’t look very “presidential” and two, one or both of the candidates probably would refuse to do the debate. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/25 "2004-04-30T06:05:54Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > I am not sure why the U.S. debates have evolved to this format. To make it easier to lob pre-screened softball questions to the candidates, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150/26 "2004-04-30T14:30:54Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > It’s also a common mistake to confuse “not a good speaker” with “dull-witted” and “unimaginative”. 🙂 I’d also argue that it’s a common mistake to confuse “not a good speaker” with “a quality that a successful president doesn’t really need”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-be-the-main-issues-in-the-presidential-campaign/241150.md?page=1)