The great presidential debates of Lincoln-Douglas and Kennedy-Nixon have devolved into a canned photo-op where the candidates mouth platitudes, the same talking points we heard them parrot during the whole interminable campaign.
How did this happen? How did a free-spirited exchange of ideas, with gloves-off sparring between the opponents, become neutered and boring? In 1988, the two major parties realized that the debates were too un-predictable, too likely to harm a candidate. They weren't worth the risk. Something had to be done to turn them into stage-managed press conferences.
The national Republican and Democratic parties teamed up (again proving that they're just two sides of the same worthless coin) and created the Commission on Presidential Debates to control things. Comprised of operatives from both parties and funded by corporations, the CPD runs the show, having given the boot to the independent League of Women Voters.
This puppet on a string does the bidding of the Demopublican machine, virtually assuring that nothing threatening can happen to either major party candidate. As part of that mission, the CPD does everything it can to shut out third-party challengers. The CPD's director stated in 2002: “I think it's obvious that independent candidates mess things up.”
Almost every aspect of the debates — where they will be held, who asks the questions, times for responses and rebuttals, whether the candidates may directly engage each other, who'll be in the audience, the height of the podiums — is dictated by the candidates. Representatives of both politicians sign a secret contract that spells out the terms in black and white. The CPD simply carries out these orders.
The nonprofit group Open Debates — which is attempting to put the debates under the control of a citizens' commission — has released leaked copies of these contracts. The 1996 agreement, for the debates between Clinton and Dole (and their veeps), said:
No follow-up questions by the moderator will be permitted, and no cross-questions by the candidates or cross-conversation between the candidates will be allowed under these rules.
Contracts for other years have had the same basic rules, which make for “debates” that are about as enthralling as watching paint dry.
Even the first President Bush admitted (after the fact): “It's too much show business and too much prompting, too much artificiality, and not really debates. They're rehearsed appearances.” 