A quick guide for moderators to make the remaining debates more useful for voters.
Don’t ask the candidates the same questions. They don’t have the same strengths and weaknesses. Questions should reflect this.
The first question in the first debate — essentially, how can America create more jobs? — allowed the candidates to repeat memorized sound bites. If you didn’t already know Donald Trump opposes NAFTA and believes in better trade deals, then you learned something. Likewise, if you’ve never heard Democratic Party talking points — the rich get more than their fair share, let’s enact paid family leave and increase the minimum wage — your eyes were opened.
But these things were already known to most voters.
The mark of a great moderator is his ability to take things to the next level.
Moderator Lester Holt should have asked Trump: Many Americans agree that too many jobs have gone overseas, but they also enjoy low prices. When a company manufactures overseas, it can reduce prices. If your proposals go into effect, by how much will prices rise? Be specific and tell us why we should trust your numbers. How do you know the American people prefer more jobs to lower prices?
Holt should have asked Clinton: You frequently speak of fairness, about family leave and taxpayer-funded childcare, and raising the minimum wage. But these things cost money; they don’t create — and often kill — jobs. The one proposal you make to create jobs, promoting alternative energy, was tried by President Obama and resulted in billions spent on bankrupt companies. Do you have no policy ideas to cause substantial job creation in the private sector? If you don’t, isn’t it correct to say that you have no plan to expand America’s wealth?
Holt’s second big question — asking each candidate about taxes — was no better. Neither said anything new.
Be fair. Holt then asked Trump about releasing his tax returns, but apparently had no plan to ask Clinton to release her speech transcripts or emails. He should have been more equal. (He did note to Clinton that Trump mentioned her emails in his answer.) All candidates hold something back. If moderators don’t want to ask them about their secrets equally, they should ask about something else.
Ask about the tough stuff. Clinton has never satisfactorily explained why she left Americans undefended to die in Benghazi, or why she developed her disastrous Libya policy, yet a candidate’s ability to handle risky overseas ventures is surely a qualification. Why didn’t Holt ask?
Likewise, possibly the toughest question Trump could be asked was asked by Clinton, not Holt. As phrased by Clinton: “Do the thousands of people that you have stiffed over the course of your business not deserve some kind of apology from someone who has taken their labor, taken the goods that they produced, and then refused to pay them?” Trump gave an answer, which the public can judge, but he presumably wouldn’t have touched the subject if it had been left to Holt. Why didn’t Holt raise the issue?
Don’t ask questions that allow the candidates to say anything they like. Holt’s race question “how do you heal the divide?” was pap. It allowed each candidate to say anything, and each took advantage.
Don’t ask about things that don’t matter. Holt asked Trump why he changed his mind about President Obama’s place of birth. Not why he questioned it in the first place, but why he changed his mind.
Do ask about things that affect the voters’ lives. Why didn’t Holt ask both candidates about America’s biggest domestic program, one whose insolvency could drive our country over a fiscal cliff, yet one millions of our most fragile Americans depend upon?
Holt might have asked: “There’s a very real question about whether we can afford Medicare. Yet senior citizens already are increasingly finding it difficult to get needed services, and cutting costs would make that worse. We can’t productively look overseas for answers because seniors abroad are suffering even more, and their costs are unsustainable. What exactly would each of you do to rescue and repair Medicare so we can afford it, and so it works well for senior citizens?”
Do you know what either Trump or Clinton would do to save Medicare? Or the likewise insolvent Social Security? I don’t.
Let’s hope the next debate moderator will believe Medicare and Social Security matter at least as much as birth certificates and tax returns.
