If any of the candidates running for president watched the Kerry campaign, then they know how not to win the presidency. If any of them watched when Bill Clinton answered questions put to him live on TV by college students and if they’ve watched the most popular show on TV – American Idol – then they should know how to win this election.
No I’m not suggesting that ALL that glitz and glamor should be added to question-and-answer sessions. That could be a disaster. But a certain amount, if it was done PRECISELY the right way, would be absolutely tremendously fantastic. So let me spell it out, Mr./Ms. Candidate. Here is PRECISELY the right way.
Plan four televised question-and-answer programs, roughly splitting the country into four quarters. Schedule them each a week or two apart. First, invite the student newspaper editor and one history professor from each of fifty widely diverse universities to participate for a day at each of the four locations. In total 200 students and 200 profs are invited to four locations, each bringing two questions to ask the candidate.
When they arrive, divide them into ten groups of ten, being sure to keep people from right wing schools together and people from left wing schools together to make certain a greater diversity of questions for the candidate. Transparency is the highest priority and getting the best questions is the main goal. You need to show an openness to answering questions from the right, left and center.
At the beginning of the day the ten groups are sequestered and, using secret vote, each required to choose the three best questions to represent their group. Those three questions are then sent to each of the nine other groups, where the members discuss the questions and, again using secret vote, decide which is the best of each three questions.
After lunch all those votes are tabulated and then the top ten voted questions -- one from each group – are discussed by the entire assembled group. The goal here is to eliminate any duplication among the questions, and consider any suggested changes of wording in the questions. If any of the questions are voted too close to being duplicates, the group must vote on which of the duplicates is better and eliminate the other.
All this choosing of questions must be done in total secret from the candidate or anyone in his/her campaign, so that the ones chosen are the questions voters want answered, not the questions the candidate wants to answer. Also the answer will be that of the candidate, not a politically correct one made up by political advisers. Total transparency is the key. The candidate is showing his/her willingness to answer any question the people want to ask, as well as showing how he/she will be open to transparency while in the White House.
After dinner, comes the live televised question-and-answer session. The authors of the chosen questions form a panel seated on stage across from the candidate, while their 90 compatriots comprise the audience. The first few minutes of the TV program tells about the participants and how they spent the day choosing the questions. Then the first question is pulled out of a hat and asked by the narrator. The candidate is given about three minutes to answer.
After the candidate’s answer, the narrator asks the panel whether the candidate directly answered the question or went off in another direction and avoided it. They each hold up a numbered card from one to ten – a ten meaning the candidate stayed on topic and answered completely and a zero meaning he/she did not. Then the narrator asks the panel members whether they liked and agreed with the candidate’s answer and again the panel members hold up a numbered card.
When all the questions and answers are done, the candidate chooses one of the questions and spends a few minutes discussing that question with its author. Finally the audience votes on the best question of the evening, its author is congratulated and given two tickets to the party convention and that’s the end.
Can anybody see how refreshing such openness by a candidate would be? Can anybody hear that candidate promising to continue those exact same question-and-answer sessions with all their transparency every four months when he/she is president? Can anybody imagine what size of an audience might tune in to such an entertaining and informative program?
When used really well, TV can be THE great informer of the people. Here would be a chance Mr./Ms. Candidate. Are there any questions?