It's Debatable

I have a secret...I have never watched a presidential debate from start to finish.  I don't think I have ever actually watched any debate from start to finish for that matter. 

A very good and legitimate reason why I have never watched an entire presidential debate is that by the time the debates roll around I have usually picked my guy.  Now I am from Texas and that usually means that my guy dosen't have a chance in hell of winning the state and my vote ultimately counts for nothing but I digress.  

Another less legitimate more personal reason I do not watch the debates is because it just makes me so darn uncomfortable.  This evening on the drive home from a wonder first time Whole Foods experience I was listening to NPR, like I do, and the debate was being aired live. As I was listening to the two the two contestants? players? debaters? nominees? debating each other and talking over the moderator I noticed there was a strange crunching sound in my ear the sound of me grinding my teeth. I was white knuckling the steering wheel and ensuring my reliance on dentures in the future because of the crazy tension that I felt coming off the candidates through the radio and into my car. I am sorry but does anyone else think that debates of any kind are incredibly awkward?

It just hacks on my performance sensitivities to hear Gov. Romney or Pres. Obama speak to the audience about one another like the other person is not in the room! Unless of course they break the rules and ask each other a direct question.  Also I just can't watch the debate on television. It is so visually boring. Two grown men standing across the stage from one another in a weird angle in which they are simultaneously looking at each other and cheating out towards the audience. This standing is all there is for 2 hours.  Now what I really would like to see is the behind the scenes debate action in the press spin rooms.  I want to see the yelling and the spinning happening after all West Wing made it look so interesting.

Moving away from the aesthetics I also can't stand the debates because I feel so sorry for the poor people that get up and ask a question to the candidates because they never answer it.  They always talk around it but never directly speak to the question.  This poor guy asked a question about whether or not the Czar of Energy (or whatever his title is) is correct in saying it is not his job to control fuel prices. Both candidates ended up in an argument of how much federal land was being used to produce oil. Romney said less federal land was being used because permits were cut and Obama was arguing that the permits were cut and reassigned because the land wasn't being used... the poor guy never got an answer.  And, don't get me started on the unbearable, hate filled tension between the two candidates.  They talk over one another and you know they just want to haul off and sock one another in the face but at the end they are all smiles and handshakes.

I just don't understand the point of a presidential debate. What knowledge or insight is to be gained by having two highly rehearsed persons talk about and to one another around legitimate questions?  I also don't understand how one person can win a debate over another but thats a different matter. Two grown men arguing over who is lying about what just seems like a waste of my time. Face it people! They are politicians! They are both lying! How is going on national television, not answering questions from the public and bickering like school children over who is telling the "truth" helpful in deciding who should be the nations next leader? What kind of performance is this because it is certainly not one of competency or authority.