Forums are farcical

     If you ask me, I think we have too many candidate forums leading up to elections, at any level.
     The people who run for office spend more time creating good answers than the questioners spend on finding good questions.
      And no matter what the questions are, or how astute the responses, what makes more headlines is any goof-up a candidate makes. Ask Rick Perry, who could not remember the name of that other government agency he would eliminate to save money.
     I have to wonder, too, who attends these forums. You can hear audience responses in the background, and sometimes it seems like they have substituted an audience sound track from cage fighting, or the Jerry Springer show. Where do they come from? Are these the same people who go to races looking for a crash, but tell you they like to see good drivers in action?
     There's plenty of hypocrisy to go around. It is, after all, a political event.
     Most people really care about good leadership, but I think they stay home from forums, knowing they won't see or hear anything there that does not serve the candidates or the parties, or the sponsors, more than it serves the public good. But I already said that; this is, after all, politics.
     Politics and show business. One reason why there are too many forums is because there are too many organizations who want to be associated with the publicity that results. It makes them seem important.
     I have participated in a few forums, and I almost never heard really substantive questions. Even less often did I hear substantive responses. If you notice, the candidates with the least to offer always are on the attack, and when asked how they would do it better, instead of answering the question, they launch into two minutes of how bad the incumbent is.
     When you think about it -- if you do -- neither a challenging candidate nor a defending incumbent can give a good answer to a question on a complex issue in 90 seconds, or whatever the limit. So we get attacks and warmed-over slogans.
     I think conservatives have an unfair advantage when it comes to forums. The simplicity fits their fundamental style, the time limits reduce the opportunity for wandering past the limits of their knowledge, and also plays to the attention span of their base.
     Moderates could stay home; when was the last time anything a moderate said in a forum made the news? Moderates stay within the bounds of reason and civility, and that's not usually very interesting.
     Liberals?  They're still talking, trying to fully explain their position, long after the lights in the hall have been turned off and the TV audience has turned to Survivor.