Having ten people on the stage at once for the debates is rediculous.

[RDANGELO]

The candidates can probably get a lot more accomplished in the town halls than they can with these debates. With the little speaking time that they are likely to get in, I don't see how most of the candidates will be able to get a coherent or memorable message across, and it will not be very informative to the viewers. The Republicans tried this four years ago, and some of the candidates were virtually ignored. I don't think it worked well. It will probably be disadvantageous to to Biden Because everyone will be taking shots at him. If he skips the debate, he will be criticized for that. I think it would be much more desirable to spread it out over more days with four or five people on the stage. Maybe the network wouldn't go for that.

[VarryOn]

1. Some candidates will be ignored...

and there wont be enough time for thoughtful and thorough answers. And everyone will be vying to stand out. I just expect to be wholey unsatisfied.

My hope is the field will drop quickly in the next couple of months to 7 or 8 candidates. Then, the debates can hopefully be more informative.

[Doreen]

2. The problem with a debate

is that the candidates are going to be attacking each other bringing each other down in a bad way to their followers. This results in making it harder for the followers to switch if their candidate does not win. It also makes it harder for the candidates to get their followers to go over after they spew all of the crap about their opponents.

There are to many candidates and making things harder to get to the general election.

[rpannier]

3. Taking it further

The moderators often ask questions to invite that kind of behavior

And... they ask questions that are either so simplistic and inane as to be meaningless; see Wolf Blitzer, "Who believes in evolution. Raise your hand."
Or a policy question on the Middle East, China, Russia, health care, global warming, whatever and they have 30 seconds to a couple of minutes to explain their plan

[marylandblue]

13. Several of our candidates are good at succinct made-for-TV answers.

It's a requirement for success in modern politics.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Instead of 20 candidates, 10 on each of 2 nights

...it should have been 10 candidates, 5 on each of 2 nights.

[honest.abe]

15. Agreed.

[Cha]

5. FYI..

It's "Ridiculous".

[YOHABLO]

6. It is ridiculous unless they give each candidate equal time. 5 at the most would be better.

I can't believe we're 17 months out and already these MSM political wonks are having debates. Who knows, maybe Biden won't be such a shoo-in.

[4139]

7. It's early, for the two summer debates it's fine, then the 2% threshold kicks in...

... there will be 10 or less by the September debate

[Honeycombe8]

8. True. It's ridiculous.

But it does give us an opportunity to compare their demeanor and voices.

Biden will probably "win," since he'll be featured in the middle because his numbers are higher. This gives the one in the middle the advantage at the debate (Trump was in the middle). But the one in the middle does, after all, have the hghest numbers.

[brooklynite]

9. Very few people would watch 4 consecutive nights of debate candidates.

[MineralMan]

10. Relatively few people will watch two nights of debates.

I'm guessing 3-4 million viewers, max. I'd be interested to see how many of those stick it out for the entire broadcast, too.

Debates between two nominees, on the other hand, will attract a very large audience. We're going to have to wait for more than a year for those debates, though.

[marylandblue]

11. They will watch the sound bites on the news.

Which worked well for Trump because he always had a nasty sound bite to throw at someone.


It will be the same this time. Whoever has the best sound bite wins (hopefully not a nasty one). Whoever gaffes badly, loses (Joe, please don't end your career this way).

[MineralMan]

12. Yes. Brief clips of a few candidates will appear on the evening news.

The cable news opinion shows will show more of them, but their viewership is also low, compared to the voting population.

Reducing the amount of time each candidate will have to a minute or two will generate plenty of sound bites, I'm sure.

[BannonsLiver]

14. People will complain no matter how it's done.