Apr
23
Philadelphia Democratic Debate: “the worst ever”
April 23, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
By Tia Tian Chi
One of the most important Democratic Primaries is taking place in Pennsylvania today. Since the Democratic primaries started in January, there are now only ten primaries and 566 pledged delegate votes left for Democrats to choose their nominee for the presidential election in November, while Republicans have been uniting for their presumptive nominee, Senate McCain, already.
Pennsylvania primary is especially significant for Senate Clinton because many have brought to a close her chances of defeating Senate Obama. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, emphasized the importance of this primary for the Clinton campaign at an event in Western Pennsylvania on March 11. He said “If she wins a big, big victory in Pennsylvania, I think it’ll give her a real big boost going into the next primaries… I think she’s got to win a big victory in Pennsylvania. I think if she does, she can be nominated, but it’s up to you.”
At such a crucial moment for the Democratic, the debate in Philadelphia last Wednesday, which originally supposed “to provide voters and viewers with information they need to measure the suitability of the candidates for the white house”, had become the most criticized debate in recent history. For more than half of the time, the debate was about matter like Obama’s “relationship with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his association with former members of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground” instead of real issues that Americans are facing now.
After watching the debate, many people, including professional commentators and ordinary viewers, have accused the ABC moderators of unfairly pressing tough and irrelevant questions primarily at Senate Obama. Moreover, as Adam Nagourney from New York Times observed, “the interrogation was characterized by their critics as trivial and demeaning to the presidential selection process in general.” He also pointed out “one of the central dynamics of this campaign — and why things have seemed so strained as the candidates have sought areas of difference — is that these are two Democrats with fairly similar views of the world.”
A group of forty liberal journalists and bloggers, including Michael Tomasky from The Guardian, Matthew Yglesias from The Atlantic Monthly, Chris Hayes from The Nation, and etc. wrote an open letter to ABC. They stated “The debate was a revolting descent into tabloid journalism and a gross disservice to Americans concerned about the great issues facing the nation and the world. This is not the first Democratic or Republican presidential debate to emphasize gotcha questions over real discussion. However, it is, so far, the worst.”
Richard Adams at The Guardian also considered this debate, which might be the last one for the Democratic campaign since the next one in North Carolina hasn’t been cancelled with no rescheduled date as of yet, as the worst one ever. He called it “a stinker and absolute car crash” in order to express people’s discontent, especially among bloggers: “the blogosphere was not happy. Not happy at all.” The 90-minute discussion went so poorly that “at the end of the debate members of the crowd appeared to be booing moderator Charlie Gibson.”
A blogger from DailyKos suggested a list of subjects for the ABC moderators as well as all Americans to think about: “the finally crisis, the collapse of housing values in the US and around the world, Afghanistan, health care, torture, the declining value of the US dollar, education, trade, Pakistan, energy, immigration, the decline of American manufacturing, the Supreme Court, the burgeoning world food crisis, global warming, China, the attacks on organized labor and the working class, terrorism and al Qaeda, Civil liberties and constraints on government surveillance.”
