Did a 2008 Rule Change Ruin Presidential Debates? | NYT Opinion

Sophomoric insults. Rudeness. Personal attacks. Cross talk.

These have become defining features of American political debates these days. But things haven’t always been this way. As the Opinion Video above reminds us, civility once had a place in the political forum.

So, what happened? Hint: It’s not all Donald Trump’s fault.

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[phatato]

It's a reflection of our society, people are more interested in seeing a spectacle than actually listening to serious important things.

[hgmet]

There is no point to these debates. It's just a shouting match. Just get candidates one-on-one and ask them specific questions and then ask follow-up questions.

[jeannettedavis]

There's a lot more behind this than a simple rule change. Our cultural fixation on entertainment and drama drives out rational discourse. Also, the virtues of trying to understand alternate viewpoints are not being taught.

[McBfy]

Why can't they just cut off the mics if the candidates' time runs out to or if the candidates start to derail the debate? IMO, I blame the moderator and the organizers for not putting their foot down when things start to go unhinged. But hey, people now would rather watch grown children argue than watch boring politicians talk about what's best for our future in this country.

[jmhorange]

They should bring that rule back! Like watching the moderator tell Obama to address the McCain, they both seemed so uncomfortable, and the moderator was just smiling. You know I used to watch British parliament on C-Span in the early morning. The Prime Minister has to go in front of parliament and get asked questions from parliament. One thing I noticed about the back and forth questioning and answering is that they all had to refer to each other in the third person. I remember a politician saying something like, "The Prime Minister promised this, but as of now he has not delivered. Will the Prime minister admit that he has failed in his promise?!" and the Prime Minister was like, "I am sorry that MP feels that way, but I think if he bothered to look at the data publicly available, he would in fact realize that I am delivering on my promise!"

You need something to separate politics from becoming personal. It's a work place after all, and most people can't yell at each other about a problem at their job and not have the company be completely dysfunctional. They need to rescind that 2008 rule. Had no idea there was a rule change 😬

[cicalinarrot]

"Will you shut up, man" is still my favourite Biden moment.

[SpectrumPOV]

I would hate to be the transcriber for one of these debates.

[DaGhost]

Kinda funny how they ignore the moderators but not the commercial break

[rngad]

Rule makers in 2008: "Just a little change to shake this up a little bit, this doesn't have horrific ramifications in 7 years from now."

[lynnturman]

We used to watch debates to see what the candidates' positions were on issues & to determine who we wanted to vote for. Now it's a spectator sport where we watch to see if our "side" is going to win or not.

[Nykd]

It’s not just the politicians.
The whole world slowly changed to this…

[chrissmith]

Forget debates. Let a group of voters from each party give the candidates a list a priories before the debate and let them prepare a five minute presentation on how they’d tackle it. After each gives their position open it up to a panel of voters and let them defend it like a doctoral thesis

[Ward]

I remember a couple years ago looking up old debates on my own just out of curiosity and was shocked how chill they were. Especially the 2004 debates with Kerry and Bush 43. I swear we were a better people back then. We all watched The West Wing back then now everyone watches Tik-Tok.

[jb-eqno]

“This guys a choke artist… and this guys a liar” made me burst out laughing

[benoitb.m]

I am from France and the exact same thing has happened over a similar time frame. I think it is also that society is more divided now than before.

[GarrettFischer]

Debates should be in a room with no audience. Candidates shouldn’t be playing for an applause

[lephtovermeet]

It's been ruined since at least the 80s. It's not been a debate since forever. There's no fact checking, and no point or scoring system. They don't even honor time slots and for some reason they leave all mics hot and refuse to cut mics.

[johnchessant]

The other problem is that the moderators always try to squeeze in too many topics each debate. The first modern presidential debate (Dewey vs. Stassen in 1948) was an entire hour devoted to one question ("should Communist Party USA be outlawed"). If you only have 2 minutes to speak on each topic, instead of contributing meaningfully to the conversation why not throw in some zingers that ensure you'll be remembered?

[legendarywiimaster]

Crazy how the debates for most powerful and most important job in the country end up being some of the worst

[somecallmesean_]

at least the three guys in 2008 and 2012 respected each other