Logistics

[Jon Henke]

All,

  It may be a bit late to broach this, but it occurs to me that logistical issues may be a barrier to adoption of this proposal.  That is, even if a President and opposition party are willing to debate each other, there may be a scramble to control venue/management of the event that would (a) throw the whole thing into a negotiating morass, and (b) possibly scare off the loser. 

The official Presidential debates undergo an incredible amount of micro-management by campaigns and campaign surrogates.  Non-Presidential campaigns also make major demands of debates, lest their opponent get any kind of upper hand.  Nobody wants to end up with dominance displays, unflattering lighting, or other subtle disadvantages which make them look bad in comparison. 

 If I'm negotiating something like this, there's no way I'd let the opposition party stage-manage the logistics.  We'd devolve to stage-managed one-upmanship in no time.  Not because either side is intrinsically unethical, but because the incentives for the people who control it would lead to them assuming minor advantages for themselves....and the other side would retaliate and escalate under the time-honored political doctrine of "they did it first!"  Everybody who might accept this proposal is going to be thinking "what is the other side going to try to put over on us?"

Perhaps the logistics are set by an independent 3rd party - e.g. a non-partisan Congressional office like the Parliamentarian or Sergeant At Arms, or something like that. We don't need to solve that problem in the initial letter, but we should at least consider how to avoid the "yes, we'll accept that....if we can control it" path to nowhere.  If it gets down to partisan negotiations over who controls it, it will never see the light of day.

_______

Jon Henke

[da...@aol.com]

Jon,
Fortunately, we have a pretty good precedent: Friday. And if we get to the point of arguing over such details, that will still be a big chunk of progress.
David Corn

PS Who doesn't hate the presidential commission on debates?

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