Ronald Reagan

The Presidential and Vice Presidential debates have always been the most entertaining part of the election season for me. From the past debates that I’m seen, they’ve usually been less about the issues and more about creating an impression to the American people about the personality and character of the particular candidates. My first Presidential debate that I remember is the Reagan/Carter debate in 1980, and I just remember Reagan saying “there you go again” whenever Carter criticized Reagan. Though a lot of the debates seem canned, they do offer a chance to see the candidates perform alone without the handlers and p.r. people, and it gives us a chance to see how the candidates think on their feet. I found on the internet a site that Jim Lehrer hosted for PBS called Debating Our Destiny (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/index.html) that looked back on the televised Presidential and Vice debates and interviewed the candidates to see their thoughts on the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. As we listen to the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates in these next few weeks, I’ve found this site to be illuminating and it gives me some perspective on the goals and approaches that John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden may take.

One could say that my life has been a series of debates. This is not to say that I’m argumentative. I’ve just been lucky in my life to have had friends with whom I could talk about issues and debate politics and religion. Although I’m fairly liberal in my politics, I’ve had in my life a fair amount of conservative Republican friends with whom I used to be able to debate on points of disagreement and while still maintaining a sense of respect for each other. Somehow, though, those type of talks have become less frequent in the past couple of years. I’m not sure if people in the past few years have just become more polarized along certain positions and are no longer tolerant of differing opinions. It’s become rare to meet that kind of friend, that friendship of opposites, and I miss those type of conversations.