How Not to Get Candidates to your Values Debate
I received an e-mail today about another GOP Presidential debate. This one is sponsored by WorldNetDaily. It’s supposed to be a Values Voters Debate. What’s interesting about this one is the whining that the sponsor is doing because the first-tier candidates are going to be no-shows.
Which leads to a nice concise set of lessons I’ll share with you about how to get candidates to ignore you.
Lesson 1 - Criticize the top-tier candidates. That’s right, that’s the easiest way for candidates to ignore you in the future. Why would anyone in their right mind decide to show up at the last minute after you just called them a “gutless wonder?”
Lesson 2 - Contradict your own values. This is supposed to be a “values voters” debate. Is name-calling now a new family value? Doesn’t that seem a bit childish?
Lesson 3 - Make your debate announcement more about the moderator than the candidates and debate. I’m not stretching it here, but atleast one-third of the debate announcement was about the moderator Joseph Farah - his background, a sales pitch for his latest book, etc. When you include quotes by Mr. Farah, atleast half of the announcement is about Mr. Farah and not about the candidates or the debate.
Lesson 4 - Inadvertently downplay the candidates who decide to participate. The announcement identifies the top-tier candidates, which means the other candidates are what - second-tier at best, or not to be taken seriously at worst. Why not thank the candidates who are deciding to participate and raise them up. I don’t know, maybe something to the effect that “this debate will give the candidates who particpate a platform and an opportunity to set themselves apart from the crowd.”
Lesson 5 - Make the debate into a gameshow. I’m not kidding here. Here’s the quote from the announcement:
Organizers are promising “rapid-fire action” in Round Two of the debate, “where the first of its kind podium design will allow questions to be asked and answered by all seven candidates in under a minute.” They also say “wildcard minutes” will be given to every candidate to use whenever they want, however they want – from challenging another candidate to interrupting a round of questions.
There’s just way too much to comment on there. So I’ll leave it for you to poke holes in it.
Lesson 6 - Make the debate as long as possible. The debate is set to begin at 7:30pm and run for three hours according to the announcement. You saw that correctly, three hours. I pity the candidates who are participating. Debates aren’t supposed be as long as some faster runners take to finish a marathon.
Given all this, is it any wonder that the top-tier candidates decided they had better things to do?