It has been better in this campaign thanks primarily to Newt Gingrich who early on called out the media on their 'gotcha questions' whether it was Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or somebody else. I give him all the credit for the debates to be far more substantative than in years past, and less focused on the non consequential controversial stuff.
Nevertheless, the debates still offer little more than short sound bites and I think especially Santorum and Romney have diminished the positive effect by their incessant sniping at each other in recent debates. That has been a huge turnoff for me.
But you will see a definite shift once it is Obama vs the Republican nominee assuming that President Obama will agree to any debates which has yet to be seen. If he does agree to debates, I will be really surprised if Obama doesn't provide a list of acceptable questions and the order they will be asked so that he can have the answers memorized or loaded into his teleprompter. And I am guessing he won't agree to a Fox debate or any other in which he cannot strictly control the content. Obama is a disaster in any kind of extemporaneous situation, and his handlers simply won't allow that to happen.
So, my best guess is that if we look to the debates to make a difference, they'll make Obama look really good to his constituency, they will disadvantage his opponent as much as possible, and that's the way that cookie will crumble.
I am severely disappointed with some of the questions that are asked of a presidential candidate that a president has virtually no control over. Here are a couple.
They ask them about abortion. This is a ridiculous question to ask because a president cannot change abortion laws. the Supreme Court has already ruled on it and it will only change if challenged in the Supreme Court and the previous ruling overturned. i admit, the president dos have the power to appoint nominees to the Supreme Court, but that nominee still has to be confirmed by a majority of the Senate.
They ask them about homosexual marriage. This also is a ridiculous question because a president cannot write a law about marriage, congress will have to do that. Additionally, if congress does, regardless of whether or not it is for or against homosexual marriage, it will be challenged in the Supreme Court. the president won't make the decision, congress or the court will.
One of the major things the president does have a lot of control over is foreign policy. As the above video pointed out, in the last presidential race those questions were not asked of Mr Obama.
The presidential oath of office includes upholding the US Constitution, where are the questions about the candidates views on the US Constitution? Where are the questions about amendments (existing or future) to the US Constitution?
