No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential DebatesBroadcast to tens of millions of Americans, the presidential debates are the Super Bowl of politics. A good performance before the cameras can vault a contender to the front of the pack, while a gaffe spells national embarrassment and can savage a candidacy. The slim margin for error has led the two major parties to seek—and achieve, under the aegis of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates—tight control through scripting, severe time limits, and the exclusion of third-party candidates. In No Debate, author and lobbyist George Farah argues that these staged recitations make a mockery of free and fair presidential elections. With urgency and clarity, this book reviews the history of presidential debates, the impact of the debates since the advent of television, the role of the League of Women Voters, the antidemocratic activity of the CPD, and the specific ways that the Republicans and Democrats collude to remove all spontaneity from the debates themselves. The author presents the complete text of a previously unreleased secret document between the Republicans and Democrats that reveals the degree to which the two parties—not the CPD—dictate the terms of the debates. In the final chapter, Farah lays out a compelling strategy for restoring the presidential debates as a nonpartisan, unscripted, public events that help citizens—not corporations or campaign managers—decide who is going to run the White House. |
Contents
Debate Cartel | 1 |
Hostile Takeover | 23 |
Candidate Exclusion | 39 |
Stilted Formats | 75 |
The 15 Percent Fiction | 97 |
Issue Exclusion | 125 |
Failed Restitution | 140 |
Other editions - View all
No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the ... George Farah No preview available - 2010 |
No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the ... George Farah No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
2000 presidential debates Advisory Committee Al Gore American Anderson asked audience ballots bipartisan campaign manager Citizens Clinton Commission on Presidential Committee on House corporate CPD director CPD's criteria David Norcross Debate Commission debate formats debate negotiator debate sponsor Democratic candidates dential debates didates Dole campaign Dole's editorialized excluded Perot Fahrenkopf and Kirk former Frank Fahrenkopf George Stephanopolous Gore House Administration House Committee included independent candidates interview issues Janet Brown John League of Women major-party candidates Memorandum of Understanding Mickey Kantor moderator Nancy Neuman National networks Neustadt Newton Minow nominees nonpartisan October panelists participate party candidates Pat Buchanan Paul Kirk Perot's inclusion Plissner podiums poll presidential candidate presidential debate process Professor Ralph Nader Republican and Democratic Ross Perot Scott Reed Senator September 2001 sponsorship Subcommittee on Elections third-party and independent third-party candidates tion two-party system vote wanted Perot Washington Post Women Voters wrote York