Discussion for article #242851
Just like the unknown when as President that you have to deal with, this change reflects the unknown of debate.
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Although I have a lot of respect for Bernie, as President you simply do not have the luxury of picking your topic for the day.
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He is doing pretty well in the debate so far. He makes sense and heās no chump. Hillary sounds like she should though, knowledgeable.
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True, but to be fair, it wasnāt Sen. Sanders āthrowing a fitā. It was supposedly a staffer, whom Iām assuming was upset over the change after all candidates spent quite a bit of time preparing for the specific topics agreed upon before. Iām sure Sen. Sanders will gladly answer any question put to him
Iām a bit brain-fried, but Iām still looking forward to this debate. I really do like all three candidates. 
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I did mean to include his team in my comment ā¦ Iām beat too and you are so correct on the staffer.
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I hope one of the remaining debates was slated to be about foreign policy and will be changed to discuss the domestic policies this debate might have covered. If there is any area of policy where Hillary Clinton needs to explain herself, itās on domestic policy. We all know she was Secretary of State for 4 years and has experience in that area. The question is how is Hillary going to please that part of the Democratic Party that idolizes Elizabeth Warren and thinks Hillary is way way too chummy with her donors from Wall Street? Is Hillary going to follow Obamaās lead and offer slices of Social Security to Republicans to get other concessions? Hillary has already proposed cutting one of the taxes that fund Obamacare; if she gets her way, how will she replace the lost revenue? Will she give Republicans the cut and then ask for revenue from another source, or will she dismantle Obamacare one concession at a time? There are so many questions Iād like to see Hillary answer on the domestic front; I hope for answers the tell me Hillary is on my side. Sure sheās competent, but that means less than nothing if she is working against, and not for, my interests.
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It seems to me Bernie has little to say about the fight against ISIS other than rehashing her 2002 vote again. Is there anyone who doesnāt know she voted for the Iraq War who will ever know?
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āā¦an aide with a rival Democratic campaign told Yahoo News.ā
Yeah, I might take this whole āthrows a fitā characterization with a rather large grain of salt.
In any case, I thought Bernie made a great point when he noted that of our massive defense budget, only about 10% is spent on fighting international terrorism, and if terrorism is one of our most pressing national security threats, maybe we ought to be realigning our priorities. That is just the kind of Big Picture thinking that I was hoping to hear from Bernie.
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They never, ever would have thrown a curveball like this to a GOP debate field.
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Are all the corporate networks letting her off the hook because of her long history of corporatism?
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But the Dems should be able to, and can, be more agile. The three Dems are so much more informed on every level.
Wouldnāt you love such a curveball thrown to the clown car? ā¦ 
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This reminds me a bit of John McCain having to parachute into Washington to deal with the financial crisis. Yes, a really really bad terrorist attack happens. Yes, the topic should be brought up in the debate. But changing around the format of the opening statements just so they can get to the topic of terrorism more quickly? Is there any point to that, other than the networking showing how awesome and responsive and topical they are? I think Sandersās aide was right to be annoyed.
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How could it be ignored? Whether CBS officially changed the format or not, this subject was going to come up. Hell, they started the whole deal out with a moment of silence.
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Iād say this demonstrates the American media is far more responsive to terrorists than to the American public. Itās to feed a press like this that terrorists commit murder; they donāt have to attack us, just attack somebody and leave it to the networks to spread the terror; networks will even preempt discussions important to a healthy democracy to spread fear for the terrorists.
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No, changes were not ānecessaryā like changes to a Presidentās daily planning might be.
To change the debate format would only serve to pander to the knee-jerk conservative hysteria that comes up every time thereās something scary going on in the world (hint: thereās ALWAYS something scary) that we have to lose our collective shit and say āFUCK Medicare, we need GUNS!!!ā
Thereās no reason the candidates needed to suddenly respond to the Paris attacks with more than answers to standard questions.
Itās not a pressing concern that we need political candidates to start coming up with powerful soundbites and pandering statements.
ISIS wonāt give a damn, the French wonāt give a damn, Repulicans wonāt give a damn.
STOP demanding that we play the GOP game and field a crop of Trumps and Cruzes as candidates.
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Seeing how the co GOP front runners can barely answer any real questions and the only subject that JEB can answer is about how to put Fanduel out of business; I donāt know if my wittle old heart can take them wiggling out of unforeseen questions with more āSubject, somewhat credible answer, unfounded bs that ignores the Houseās part in keeping the matter going, a back and forward with the moderators and then thankfully ceding time to anyone else.ā
Plus seeing how their previous āb-n-mā was about how debate structures, the only good thing that likely happens from a topic reshuffling is that the modern day Republicans would have to hire a new āRenfieldā, because the old one would be thankfully outta there.
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Pushing back is one of the ways with dealing with it.
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Would love to see the next GOP debate focus on this and actually be held to standards
I take this article as a pathetic attempt to make Sanders look badā¦ no specific need to change the debate, just shorten the time devoted to the announced topic and switch gears. actually should be no need as the economy and climate etc have a great deal to do with this and other attacks.
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