WEBVTT - How Presidential Debates Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.439 from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.400 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.480 one of the Panted Girls. It turns out, but do 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.560 you remember the Panted Girls? Don't you want that song? Yeah? 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.800 Don't you want to? Don't you want to? Something? And 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:35.760 they were almost like the fruit of the Loom guys. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.960 As a matter of fact, that possibly remarried. Yeah, it'd 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.720 be an interesting uh offspring. That's what goes on in 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.000 television in my head. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm drinking a 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.160 fan on Orange. This is why I brought it up. Yeah, 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:50.520 I have one of these couple of times a month. 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.640 That's my indulgence. That's your indulgence. Well, that's that's my 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.080 work indulgence. I got you. Okay, that's good. It's good. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:03.200 You gotta separate work life from home, like chuckers, Um, 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.800 are you happy? I am? Okay? Are you ready to start? Yeah? 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.360 This canna be a good one, and and it's timely, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.240 which is always nice. Yeah, because you know that the 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.760 um the debates are going on right now. The presidential 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.400 debates are going on right now. Yeah, the primary debates 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.200 with the presidential debates. Uh yeah, but they're not official, 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.520 are they. Well, we'll get to that. I guess, well 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.160 that was my whole thing. Uh So have you been 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.080 watching them at all? I've watched a few of the 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.000 Republican debates. I find it very entertaining and fun to watch. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.640 It is a amazing how the horse race is just 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:46.080 the best sports metaphor analogy for these debates overall. But 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:47.720 not just like a horse race, like the kind of 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.880 like the tin horses like at the carnivals like that. 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.240 Because Herman Kane all edged forward with his plan and 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.760 then um mprs like, have you really heard about this? 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.240 This nine and nine plan? Let's get into it. Rman 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.680 Kids just kind of hangs his head and goes back 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.120 a little bit. Romney is, you know, positioning forward and 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:09.919 backward at sure? Um, but the the I was looking 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.480 on Google News for something to open this up with, 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.119 and I mean that was about all I came up with. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.240 But um, everywhere everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, these 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.880 are called presidential debates, when in fact they are not 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:29.360 presidential debates. They're GOP primary debates, and uh, they're certainly 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.239 not official presidential debates, which can only be carried out 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.839 by one group called the Commission for Presidential Debates, which 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.960 we'll get to the bottom of in this Have you 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.120 seen the Saturday Night Live skit on the GOP debates 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.400 thus far? It's pretty good, Like, you know how I 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.640 feel sorry for like some of these candidates that just 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.560 are clearly shoved to the outside by the rules and 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.440 they're like Paul, yeah, loo, Well that was the joke. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.760 It showed you know, Romney and then Caine and Perry 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.040 and I think I think Backman was in there in 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:03.880 the main room, and then it showed like a side 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.280 room where they went to h two other candidates. I 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.560 can't remember it, maybe so yeah, Santorm, Santorm Huntsman and 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.000 actually showed Santorm in it in a dance club, and 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.720 then it showed Ron Paul. And then it showed Ron 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:21.200 Paul through like a surveillance camera in the parking deck 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.880 and he was just standing there in the parking deckline himself. 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.120 So it is very representative of how these things kind 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.040 of go down sometimes. It's clear that some of these 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.760 candidates just like you might as well not even show up. Yeah, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.400 but good from Paul because he does keep showing up 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.960 no matter what, and they joke about it often. Um. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:43.200 But but the the idea that a candidate cannot be 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:47.040 treated fairly in these it's just kind of mind blowing 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.680 to me. Um. But that's not even the official debates, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.800 where it's pretty much like written down that you can 0:03:55.120 --> 0:04:00.720 mistreat candidates that are Republican or Democrats. And so you're 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.080 a big debater, you're in debate club. Are you familiar 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.680 with you were your blazer all the time. We didn't 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.320 even have that at my school. I don't think we 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.160 had it at my school any But are you familiar 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.360 with the history of debates in America? Presidential debates in America? 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.960 I am, now, are you? Yeah? So what what is 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.960 it harken back to? Uh? Well, if you want to 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.000 go back to the beginning, that seems to be where 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.920 you were leading me. Um. It all sort of started 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:31.279 out in eighty eight when a young buck named Abe 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.040 Lincoln was running for a senator against Stephen Douglas, and 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.160 he had a little habit of of following Douglas around 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.000 on the campaign trail. And during his speeches would sort 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.920 of heckle him from the audience. Yeah, and they're like, well, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:46.919 we might as old debate since you're here, right, And 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.240 he would also so Douglas was just like, I'm not 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:51.719 talking to you, what are you talking about? So Lincoln 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.279 would also just follow him, stop by stop in in 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.880 Douglas's wake and be like, oh, you just heard from Douglas. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.400 Here's what I think about. Sort of a Rebut so 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.040 finally Douglas agreed to it, which was pretty groundbreaking. Um. 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.560 And they had a series of I think like seven debates. Um. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.840 It was about the existence of slavery. Douglas was pro 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.680 divided country, you know, slave states in free states. Uh. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.120 And Lincoln was like, this country can't survive like that. 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.080 And Lincoln lost that election. Um. And actually when he 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.760 ran for president in eighteen sixty, he didn't debate at all. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.320 But that was the beginning of presidential debates. There was 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.920 no moderator, there was no there's no format other than 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.080 these two guys standing there debating one another for three hours. 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.719 There was no TV, there was no Anderson Cooper. But 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.200 that was the beginning of presidential debates in America. Out 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.479 of a senate race, no less out of a senate race, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:52.960 and then it was took a long hiatus, fifteen election 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:58.680 cycles until nineteen when there was an actual presidential debate 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:03.160 on the radio between Republican primary connectors Dewey and Stassin, 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.520 and that got big ratings. I think you have between 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.240 forty and eighty million people listen to this, which was 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.920 over a hot topic of the day, which was communism. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:18.159 Outlong communism, yeah, yeah, certainly not endorsing it. No, it 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.960 was like, how do you feel about communism, presidential candidate? 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:25.800 You like it? Um? And then four years later there's 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.280 a pretty groundbreaking um debate hosted by the League of 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.919 Women Voters, who would become huge in debates later on, 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.640 but this was their first foray and it was a 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:37.920 big one. Yeah. I didn't realize how involved they were. 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.440 Was pretty cool. Yeah, that is cool. Um. They the 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:45.039 League of Women Voters in two hosted a televised debate, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.320 the first televised debate ever, and it featured all of 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.640 the candidates in both parties and all parties for president. 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.600 It's like, uh, what they call that in pro wrestling 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.880 battle royale? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is in 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.600 a cage. I think probably sometimes not always. Um, that's 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.479 how I pictured this debate though, Yeah, and a lot 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.799 of a lot of talking and murmuring. It was probably 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.640 very loud debate, you know. Um, But the League of 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.920 Women Voters hosted this and then kind of went back 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.720 out of the limelight again, and debates did as well 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:28.520 until the Great Debate, right, big b big gig gig. 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.960 But how did I get that? Yeah, you're talking about 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.960 Kennedy Nixon in nineteen sixty and this one was very 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.120 famous because Nixon was in poor health. He had a 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.080 staff infection, He's not feeling well. Apparently his gray suit 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.840 blended into the background, making him look even more wan 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.360 and Kennedy rolled in there like all sunny California handsome. 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.440 I just you know, I met up with Marilyn Monroe. Look, 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.200 and people are like, hey, this guy looks great. Yeah. Um. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.760 And it was this is the first time to the 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:06.640 two party nominated candidates or nominees um were debated one another, 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.640 just the two yeah. Um. And it was televised debate 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:16.680 nineteen sixty and um, yeah, and uh it was the 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.840 It basically established televised presidential debates as a force to 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.160 be reckoned with in American politics because a poll of 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.520 radio listeners, they're just tens and tens of millions of 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.800 people either listen to it on the radio or watch 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.040 it on TV. Um and a poll of radio listeners 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.800 found that a majority thought Nixon one. Uh. A poll 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:43.760 of television viewers found that Kennedy one in their opinion. Yeah, 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.600 And it was largely because now there were aesthetics involved. 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:52.040 It wasn't just you know, talkies, you know, squawking out 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.440 of a box, like you could see what the person 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.079 looked like, and if you look terribly like Nixon did, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.319 you were going to lose. And this also it led 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:02.320 to what maybe your best sentence in the history of 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:06.400 your writing here what By the time the twenty century 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.960 rolled around, they bore about the same resemblance to that 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.280 first televised debate in nineteen sixty as the game show 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.719 in the movie The Running Man bears to you bet 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:20.640 your life like that. I was delighted. I read that, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.920 and it's like all that chuck like that. It's fantastic. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.400 But you're right on the money with that. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.960 so um so nineteen sixty changes everything. The great debate 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.600 that from that point on Um. Probably the thing that 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.840 changed the most was the public came to expect debates. 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:43.959 So now there's pressure on candidates. Yeah. Um, but there's 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:49.080 this thing that candidates could use to their advantage. Um, 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.800 from the Communications Act in nineteen thirty four that established 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.199 the FCC. And in that Communications Act was this thing 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.720 called the Equal Time Provision. And the equal Time Provision said, 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.080 if you give media exposure to a bona fide a 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.240 presidential candidate, you have to give the same amount of 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.240 exposure to that same to to his rivals in the 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.200 in the election. Right. Yeah, And that meant that you 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:16.960 could if you said I'm not going to come to 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.800 this debate, that pretty much canceled the debate. Yeah, because 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.360 you couldn't just let that person have the stage. It 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:29.439 it disqualified them. The equal time equal Time Provision. Yeah, 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.600 and it's like it probably didn't look great to not debate, 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.440 but it looked better than going on a debate in 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:39.120 getting your butt handed to you on TV, as Nixon 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.880 did again and again and lost that nine election largely 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.839 because of that. Those debates with JFK, the televised versions 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.600 of him at least and yeah, you get bad press 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.320 for a news cycler too in the newspaper that only 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.439 you know hoarders keep um, but on television that makes 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.760 a really big impression. So yeah, Nixon himself used his 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.400 presidential veto power to keep the FEC from repealing the 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.240 equal time provision so that candidates couldn't do that any longer, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.160 so he could keep dodging debates whenever he wanted to. Exactly. 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.079 That's why they call him tricky dick. It is right 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.120 one reason, so that kind of you know, in the 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:24.440 sixties and seventies, debates were in bad shape until the 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.280 l w V leg of Women Voters stepped back in 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.360 and said, you know what, we're gonna we need to 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.360 clean up this thing. And we are women here us 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.840 roar right, and let's give a little background on them. 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.720 They were born out of the suffrage movement. League of 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.560 Women Voters was because prior to the i think the 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:50.800 nineteenth Amendment and the which was past the n um, 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.320 you didn't have women voters. So right when the the 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.320 twentie Amendment or the nineteenth Amendment past the um, all 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.440 of a sudden you did it. So the Suffrage movement 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:03.880 translated to the League of Women Voters and said Okay, 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.760 I'll go forth and start shaping public policy through your votes. Right, 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.120 so ya, League of Women Voters stepping in to take 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.120 care of business and make sure these things go off 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.400 in a fair way. Yeah, because they were just getting 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:17.640 hammered anyway they could. But it wasn't just the legal 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.800 women voters. It was the SEC had a ruling as 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.320 well that allowed entree for the League of Women Voters 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.080 to step in. Was that when they declared it a 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.200 debate a bona fide news event. Yeah, and so they said, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.360 there's a news event. If you hosted a third party 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.439 host it, then we have an exemption for the equal 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.160 time provision all of a sudden, which means now you 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.559 have to debate. The debate goes on without you. Well, yeah, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.160 you don't have to debate, but you look really bad 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.680 if you're not showing up right like Um Carter did. 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.120 Carter refused to debate um Reagan and Anderson and John 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.640 Anderson I think his name was who is an independent candidate? Um? 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:55.000 And so Reagan was like, oh, I'll do it, and 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.480 Anderson was like, I'll do it, and they debated without Carter. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.160 That perhaps lost the election for m and then among 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.840 was a contributing factor. Any other things a contributing fact. Yeah, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:09.800 I would say the oil embargo, UM, the the loss 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:14.080 of Delta force, seeking out the Iran hostages. There are 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.440 a lot of things going against Carter. He's done his 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.000 best work since then, and oh yeah, he's a statesman. 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.320 So the the LVW, they took the reins from seventy 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.760 six to eighty four because they stepped in is that 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.160 neutral party that was needed to fulfill that sec ruling. 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.520 So they said, we need a good format. We need 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.520 to split these formats into categories based on the types 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.120 of are not the types, but how the questions are asked. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.440 And they used an open format which allowed follow up 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.040 questions among the candidates, which was really a big deal 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.240 because you can't use your rehearsed. I mean, you can 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:49.920 do it as much as you can, but you can 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.160 also get caught off guard and get that great spontaneity 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:57.880 that you're looking for out of your president and UM 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.680 or lack of right. So while that was the thing, 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.880 that's the that's the big problem is like you've got 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.480 your guy who now has to debate UM and who 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.160 is debating on television, who can just blow it all 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.240 after a debate or two, you can just completely blow everything. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.559 Or like Herman Kinge came out of nowhere, just a 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:23.760 a like a businessman from Georgia, millionaire nine nine nine, right. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.040 He came up with this plan and did really well 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.000 in a couple of debates, and it just shot to 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.600 the front. He passed Romney. I think in polls for 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:37.120 a little bit. Um, so debates can can really send you, 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.480 uh to the front of the pack work and just 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:45.360 basically kill all of your chances. Political strategists don't like 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.880 that at all. Campaign managers don't like that. They like 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.840 to control everything. Well, this was the heyday though then 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:55.720 when the League of Women Voters were running the show. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.520 It was the heyday of presidential debates for sure. If 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:01.240 you were a voter, yeah, if you were a candidate, 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:06.280 it was like, so that's how it should be, right, 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.240 not hell on Earth, but at least like, you know, 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.920 spontaneous and real and not rehearsed. Right. So, um, the 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:17.359 League of Women Voters, Uh, they they did not acquiesce 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.280 to any demands of any candidates. They made very sure 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:25.120 that all candidates who were qualified got equal time. Um. 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.360 They just they it was a really fair debate and 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.760 the Republicans of the Democrats did not like this for 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.600 our a little more time, didn't they. They they gave 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.840 Geraldine for Our just a bit more time to write. Yeah, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.680 uh yeah, what was Yeah, she's Mondale's um. So the 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.800 League of Women Voters kind of, I guess, made enemies 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:48.840 out of the Democrats and Republicans who are like, wait 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.960 a minute, wait a minute, this is in effect a 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.320 two party system, so we're pretty powerful, so let's get together. 0:15:55.880 --> 0:16:00.120 And they started in nur um. They said, you know what, 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.640 we're gonna veto a hundred of the panelists. You propose, 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.520 and we're both gonna do it. They basically shut it down. Yeah, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.880 they took control from the League of Women Voters. And 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:13.400 the the death knell came in the campaign between George H. W. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:18.560 Bush's campaign and Michael Ducacus's campaign, which got together and 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.680 created what's called a Memorandum of Understanding. Yeah, and they 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:27.040 basically I loved it. It took political candidates don't not 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.600 want to look like dummies to finally bring the two 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.560 parties together on one thing. They're like, well, we can 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.800 agree on this, right, and they did, and the Memoranum 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.720 of Understanding was a little secret document that said who 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.240 could be in the audience and the debates, who could 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.200 be a panelist? Uh, no more follow up questions, and 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.120 these are the terms. And the League of Women Voters said, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:54.400 that's stinks because now we're just hosting this event. So 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.000 screw you. Well, they said that they were they resigned 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:05.040 as um as. Basically the hosts of presidential Debates love that. 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.959 They cited fraud on the American voter. That's pretty harsh 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.720 and um the the so the Democrats and the Republicans 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.120 were like, well, okay, perfect, that's that's not bad. Where 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.239 we got rid of the League of Women Voters, but 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.360 we still need a neutral party. Who is a neutral party? Oh, 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.080 I've got an idea. We'll create one from scratch. We'll 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.280 create a neutral party together that we can control. Exactly 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.879 another neutral called the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:38.160 a joint, nonprofit bipartisan organization. And that is a very 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.960 very very important word. Not nonpartisan like the League of 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.240 Women Voter. Sure, bipartisan. That means we represent two things, 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.440 Republicans and Democrats. That's exactly right. So the the CPD, 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:57.440 the Commission on Presidential Debate, UM was established, took over 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.600 hosting presidential debates. It became the only organization that could 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:06.600 legitimately host an official presidential scheduled UM four of them 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.560 for presidential election UM, one of which is always a 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.760 vice presidential debate. Those are always fun and um basically 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.439 it does a It does a lot for the Democrats 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.760 and the Republicans chuck. Yeah, they have to obviously. Uh, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:25.760 it starts about a year out because it takes a 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.800 lot of time to plan. They have to pick the location, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:32.960 have to pick the moderators, the locations are. It's a 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.320 little tricky because you want a neutral site and when 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.320 you have you know, a panel of candidates up there 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.280 there from all over the country that you know a 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.919 lot of times are colleges and so obviously can't be 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.560 tied to that candidate in any way, right, it can't 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:47.560 be their alma mater. Yeah, So it takes a while 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.439 to get everything lined up in probably in the back rooms, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.600 secretly approved by everybody exactly because it's like, well, I 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:57.680 want this podium to be this high because I can't 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.359 look short on camera, and I like my candidate likes 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.520 the debate hall temperature at this Yeah, and what's the 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.920 background look like, because we don't want you fading away 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.840 like Richard Nixon. Right, But the even the CPD or 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:16.200 this the um. Yeah, the CPD uh provides like an 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:20.760 even bigger um function for Democrats and Republicans that acts 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:26.040 as a shield, so it can issue some really unpopular decisions. Um, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.439 but it's not beholden to the public at all. It 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.119 answers only to the Democrats and Republicans, and it it 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.239 since it acts as a shield. Everybody gets mad at 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.840 the Commission on Presidential Debates when really it was the 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.560 two campaigns that that came up with that decision. Yeah, 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:46.840 like po happened with Pero and everyone remembers Ross Barrow 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.439 and that was pretty bad. Pero actually, and he was 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.600 from the Reform Party, had just a seven percent rating 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.680 before the debates. On election day got about ninetent of 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.520 the vote, which is a huge the biggest ever. So 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.840 in nine when he reared his little head again, Dole 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.920 and Clinton both said we don't want to debate this guy. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.639 We don't want him around. And so essentially the the 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:18.520 SEC changed the provision. Oh I'm sorry, the the cp 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.840 D said you're not coming right because of the equal 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.800 time provision had been like canceled, right, and that was 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.480 the shield. So even though Clinton and Dole were behind it, 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:30.520 it was really the cp D who put like the 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.320 press release out there, so they took the hit for it, right, 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.080 And the some poll found that like six percent of 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.600 voters blamed the Clinton campaign for it, nineteen percent blamed 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.280 the Dole campaign, but fifty percent blamed the Commission on 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:51.560 Presidential Debates, So uh, shield activated. And um, they also 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:56.000 got rid of any kind of spontaneity where if you 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.359 watch presidential debates now, they're basically like, um, they're just 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.320 press releases. There's no follow up questions. There's just like, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.760 here's the question that you've known for three weeks, we're 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.720 going to ask you, let's hear your answer. So it's 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.919 just completely managed and massaged. So um, and they were 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.720 criticized too. Yeah. John Kerry had a good, um, good 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.040 criticism in two thousand. He said, quote, you could have 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.919 picked ten people off the street who didn't know Jerusalem 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.960 from Georgia and they would have had better questions. So 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.560 that's where we stay right now. The Commission on Presidential Debates, 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.200 it still runs the show as much as there They 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.879 play a little looser though, like these candidates sort of 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.760 run over the rules, like barring someone like Anderson Cooper 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.680 coming out there and taping someone's mouth shut. You still 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.960 see them like, you know, running over the time. And 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.919 I remember when Bush and Gore um debated one another, 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.600 that was there's just so much sniping about what I 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:57.400 was supposed to have my time and he had his time, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.720 so I'm gonna take extra time, and it just it's 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:01.359 sort of gets out of hand. It was it was 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.840 it a presidential debate or a primary debate? No, I 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:06.920 mean feels Bush and Gore when a primary debate or 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.399 well no, but was it like hosted by CNN or 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:12.840 something like that, or was it official? You know, I 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.720 don't remember. I mean it was the famous one where 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:18.560 they started showing reaction shots and it showed George Bush 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:21.159 getting all perturbed each time Gore with you know, they 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.879 had the split screen up basically, so that one was 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:30.160 um uh two thousand four between Carrie and Bush. Well 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:32.320 they seed they did the same thing with Gore because 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.320 I watched it earlier and George Bush is annoyed. Well, 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.400 they just showed a split screen so while Gore was talking, 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.800 it showed Bush's reactions the whole time and then vice versa. Right, 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.280 and apparently there was a memorandum of understanding that the 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:45.480 networks were just like, no, we're not gonna do that. 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:47.679 We're going to film breakaway shots that that may have 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:49.640 been a scene and thing, though you're right, it may 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.040 not have been official. Um, let's see what else, Chuck, Well, 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.520 what makes an ideal debate? We've talked, we pooh pooed it. 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:59.199 What makes a good one, Well, a good one, like 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.000 you said, it needs to be fair, So like the CPD, 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:06.760 the CPD is doing some stuff fairly, like um, not 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:11.320 holding a debate at the alma mater of one of 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.159 the candidates or their home state or their hometown or 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.160 anything like that, and they can't. You also pointed out 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.400 that it's usually a bigger city too, because you have 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:24.600 to have what is it, three thousand available hotel rooms 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.639 and pay a seventy application fee, So that rules out 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:35.000 anywhere in Kansas, right pretty much? You know, yeah, yeah, Um. 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.879