Posted by
Bob Siegel on Saturday, December 15, 2007 1:16:39 AM
Kudos to Fred Thompson for not answering that stupid yes or no
question. Don’t these arrogant
journalists know anything about debates?
I mean real debates, with detailed, opening statements, rebuttals and
chances for opponents to cross-examine each other? I guess we should expect no
less from a generation that grew up on Sesame
Street and continued to round out their education on MTV. The theory behind Sesame Street, of
course, was that children would stop paying attention unless we offered nothing
other than quick and constantly changing snippets. Actually, nothing can be
farther from the truth. Children stop
paying attention when they’re bored, not when presentations are long. If you
don’t believe me, just watch a child refuse to put down his Harry Potter book or observe a toddler
mesmerized by a feature length animated Disney movie. Nevertheless, people are
married to this idea of short attention spans to the point where it becomes a
self-fulfilled prophecy and we end up creating
short attention spans. As children
turn teens, they graduate to MTV with
its countless, flashy images so that one never spends more than a second or two
looking at a scene.
In any event, I mean no
disrespect to Sesame Street or MTV because both entities are at least more
intelligent than the moderators of these brain dead debates. Putting aside the fact that no questions were
asked about the war on terror and instead “important” issues like Global
Warming were brought to the table, (an issue Republicans supposedly do not care
as much about, which is probably the sole reason it was introduced) any
imbecile realizes that a quick question, allowing nothing but the single word
“yes” or “no” as a response, is nothing but a cheap, shamelessly manipulative
set up.
“Question; Are you
concerned about Global Warming. Just answer yes
or no.”
Thompson may have wanted to say that the earth is getting
warmer but he doesn’t believe people are responsible and doesn’t really think
we can do anything about it. Or he may have wanted to say that he would be
concerned if he was convinced that the warming was really happening but
scientists (with all due respect to that genius Al Gore) do not believe the
debate is over. Or he may have wanted to say that the problem does not belong
solely to America
and that many countries are polluting the atmosphere far more than we. Or he
may have wanted to say he’s concerned but not concerned enough to start taxing
everybody forty percent or to put heavy restrictions on companies that could
drive them out of business and raise unemployment. Or maybe he thinks that
forbidden subject, the war on terror, is more important by light years.
We will never know what he would have said. But we do know he’s a man who
can stand up to these self righteous twits who wouldn’t even know how to watch
a debate, let alone moderate one.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
The Bob
Siegel Show can be heard every Sunday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM on KCBQ 1170 on the dial or KCBQ.com to listen live
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