Last Thursday’s debate on public television between incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn and his Democratic (Rick Noriega) and Libertarian (Yvonne Adams Schick) challengers was just damn near useless. Hopefully, organizers of the next debate (Thursday, 8pm, shown in Austin on KLRU-TV – channel 18, cable channel 9) will adopt a different format that allows for some real discussion.

Apparently, the Houston public television and League of Women Voters organizers wanted to allow time to cover every issue under the sun by giving candidates only one minute for answers, and then even less sensibly, allowing only 30 seconds to each candidate for rebuttal. The result was a mile wide but only an inch deep, as the saying goes. Mostly what viewers got to hear were well-practiced soundbites, not informative answers to complex issues.

This week’s debate will be organized by Dallas public station KERA – here’s hoping that this time quality will prevail over quantity.

This article appears in October 10 • 2008.

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