You know what? Screw decorum--I want more rowdy, hooting, hollering debates!

[Bicoastal]

Forget about this WE MUST BE SILENT AND SERIOUS AT ALL TIMES crap. I want voices raised. I want controversies exposed. I want the candidates to interrupt and argue with each other. I want the audience to applaud the people who score a point and boo the people who screw up. I want the moderator to intervene ONLY when things seem on the verge of getting completely off-topic and/or out-of-control.

I'm glad Obama won last night, but I hope no Undecideds or Independents turned off the TV midway through because of how BORING it was. Politics doesn't have to be so damn stiff and formal--because in real life, it isn't!

Who's with me?

[Eric J in MN]

1. I want follow-up questions.

As for audience laughing and cheering, I prefer the debates without that.

[Bicoastal]

2. I didn't mind them in the Primaries--even when they worked towards Hillary's advantage.

[LisaM]

3. I agree with you. It was deadly.

That's why everyone was analyzing things like body language, or how many time McCain said, "my friends".

I noticed a couple of things - one, whenever McCain talks about war, he lights up (he's similar to Bush in this regard). And it is definitely scaring people.

We also noticed afterwards that everyone was lining up to get their pictures taken with Obama (and he gracefully posed over and over) but no one seemed to care to have their picture taken with McCain.

IMO, Obama's best moment was when he talked about his mother fighting with the insurance company from her cancer bed. He showed some emotion and passion, and it is the kind of thing he needs to do more often.

[Eric J in MN]

9. The main reason it was boring was that most of the answers...

...were the same as during the first debate.

There should have been follow-ups to pressue the candidates to specifically answer the questions instead of using the same generalities as before.

[Goblinmonger]

4. Final debate should be "Live at the Apollo"

That was my suggestion to my wife last night. White people would be invited, too--it's not that I want just a black audience, but that kind of audience "interaction."

[Bicoastal]

11. Yes, and I want a dreadlocked tap dancer to shoo McCain off the stage when he gets too boring.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. Hell no.

That would be the last step in turning our country into "American Idol: President Edition"

I absolutely, positively do NOT want these debates turning any anti-intellectual than they already are.

[Goblinmonger]

12. Or turning into the British Parliament

what do those bastards know about government?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

15. About as much as we do?

Furthermore, we're not talking about Congressional proceedings, we're talking about debates. Perhaps you'd like to mix and match settings, but I prefer to keep them a bit distinct.

[Goblinmonger]

16. Well, that would be a mix

of congressional and executive proceedings. And we are talking here about the different formats for the debate. Certainly we are not going to have a formal debate. Things are modified. What is wrong with modifying it to have more audience interaction. My point with Parliament would be that an argument that it is unbecoming to the formality of the situation is fallacious.

[riverdale]

6. Deadly dull debates by design

I think a whole section of the debate should be designated to GOTCHA questions. The moderator can ask ten to each candidate, and the candidates can ask each other five.

[KittyWampus]

7. you mean like Britain's Parliament?

:D

[Goblinmonger]

14. GMTA n/t

[Overseas]

8. Republicans need canned environments for their canned lies.

They don't want free form debate. Their war hero could fly off the handle. Obama and Biden are too intelligent for them. They couldn't keep up.

[pleah]

10. I agree. I hate these emotionless debates and I hate it when

the moderators don't stop the candidate when they clearly aren't answering the question.

[olkaz]

13. That would benefit McCain: We need our candidate to look capable, serious, and resolute.

People are looking for somebody to pin their trust on, and turning the debate into a wrestling match doesn't do anything for that.