How is America to know which individual running in this election will be the best commander and chief executive officer? If we were to use ABC’s democratic debate on Wednesday, April 16 as a sample interview, we might confuse a presidential campaign for a soap opera audition. ABC promoted the debate with images of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, the big guns. Watching the promos I inferred that these two seasoned journalists were to ask hard hitting, vital policy questions. Instead, both, perhaps fed by company agendas or the gossip appeal of certain topics, pounded away for the majority of the debate about non-issues. A comment made by Mike Plugh on an ABC News Story, Many Viewers ‘Bitter’ about ABC Debate, clearly expressed his position. I won’t try to recap his frustrations - here they are:
The debate is the talk of the town, and not all of it is positive? How about almost none of it is positive. Before we get sidetracked on the issue of Obama complaints or Hillary’s treatment of the media, let’s talk for a second about the hypocrisy of the moderators and their lines of questioning. It’s not who won or who lost. That’s clear. The Republicans won, and the American people lost. What about the ethics of having a former Clinton official moderating a debate in which a Clinton was participating? Can you defend that with a straight face?
Plugh then cites a quotation from Stephanopolous in the 1992 New Hampshire Primary:
What he’s going to do in this campaign is focus on what’s important to the American people, on the jobs and the education. That’s what the American people care about. They want to move into the future. They don’t want to be diverted by side issues, and they’re not going to let the Republican attack machine divert them.
See Stephanopolous say it at The Huffington Post
We have broken down the questions asked of the candidates into Issues and Soap Opera plot points. Since we gained no real information about the candidates positions with the show introduction, opening thoughts or closing thoughts these points have been grouped with the soaps.
The Key:
- Soap 1 - 5.7 min - Introduction and opening statements
- Soap 2 - 3.87 min - One of you as VP?
- Soap 3 - 4.55 min - Obama’s ‘bitter’ comment
- Soap 4 - 5.97 min - Clinton’s comment that Obama will not win
- Soap 5 - 9.67 min - Rev. Wright’s remarks
- Soap 6 - 5.27 min - Clinton’s honesty (Bosnia)
- Soap 7 - 8.78 min - Obama’s patriotism (wearing a flag)
- Soap 8 - 1.78 min - Thoughts on President Bush
- Soap 9 - 4.42 min - Final thoughts
- Issue 1 - 11.7 min - Iraq war policy
- Issue 2 - 15.08 min - Tax Reform
- Issue 3 - 7.98 min - Gun Control
- Issue 4 - 3.47 min - Affirmative action
- Issue 5 - 3.05 min - Gas prices
So where do we go from here? Our first and foremost responsibility is to elect the best candidate in spite of the the media’s efforts to confuse real issues with soap opera scripting. If we use Lee Iacocca’s method of choosing the next president, each of us would create a leadership scorecard where we evaluate the candidates leadership skills based on Iacocca’s 9 C’s of leadership. (Download a scorecard from Iacocca’s site). Perhaps if we use quantitative data first to weigh our own decisions we will empower each other to also make educated decisions.
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