Flawed Formats-Candidate Initiated Questions - Montana Senate 6th Debate
Debates aired on C-Span are increasingly using a flawed format, the segment where candidates are invited to ask one question of their opponent. The impulse is understandable as the interchanges are usually lively-sparks flying-energizing otherwise tedious debates.
A couple dozen debates aired on C-Span have used the practice. Although statistical validation awaits the luxury of post-campaign analysis I venture the following observations. Candidate questions tend to be:
* Imprecise, long accusatory exhortations by candidates, often interrupted by the moderator seeking to know just what the question is.
* Questions about scandal. Accusations raised elsewhere in the campaign are reintroduced, presumably for emphasis, but typically only solicit practiced answers and counter accusations
* Questions about campaign ads. Perhaps a majority of questions ask if they Stand by their ads, why they continue to air lies. Not surprisingly, the answer is to insist they are true and matched by the questioner's improprieties.
* Questions seem to be reflexive with horserace sensitivity, seldom an exploration of issues
* When questions address issues they often are designed to hoodwink, raising examples they presume the opponent will not have thought about or heard of before. Obscurity as strategy may reflect how "clever" some researcher is but doesn't seem to enlighten.
