A Tale of Two Debates

After careful reflection, I've decided that the Canadian leader's debate was a much more informative debate than the American V.P. debate. The Canadian debate allowed its viewers to get a much better view of the candidates than the American one. Instead of the rigid, timed presentation of topics of the American debate, the Canadian debate had a more fluid, free rolling structure. Let's be honest, for most of the American debate, only the person speaking really had to be there. There was very little opportunity to refute, rebut, or just plain argue. It allowed both debaters to stick to scripted responses and a small set of talking points. The Canadian debate forced the participants to think on their feet and react immediately to what was being said. The participants had the opportunity to challenge statements made as they were being said, not wait patiently for the moderator to let them talk. This meant that they also had to defend their positions, not merely state them.

Just for anyone who doesn't know how the formats were different, the American debate had Biden and Palin standing at podiums, pretty much ignoring each other while they threw out prepared talking points, only occasionally taking one another to task, and always having to wait for the moderator to let them speak. In the Canadian debate, all the major party leaders were sitting around a round table, and the moderator was really only there to make sure everyone got a turn, and to intervene if it got too heated (though at one point near the end he was yelling too). The debate was guided by a series of 8 questions, and as long as everyone got the chance to state their position on a question, the conversation/argument was allowed to flow naturally. Of course it led to yelling, finger pointing, leaning across the table and such, but it let viewers get a good feeling of the ability of each participant, as well as a good measure of how articulate they are. Also, if any one of the leaders had any sort of weakness in their knowledge of a topic, it was quickly, and brutally exposed and exploited. A wonderful contrast to the American debate where Palin managed to "hold her own" despite appearing very poorly knowledgeable about pretty much everything.