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Opening Arguments

The sound bites and the fury

Mayoral candidate Liz Brown wants to debate other Republican contenders (only Paula Hughes so far), and IPFW politics watcher Andy Downs downplays the significance of the possibility:

However, Downs said political debates and similar speaking appearances on the local level aren't much like formal debating. Instead, they bolster the work of campaign advertising, building additional name recognition and emphasizing key themes in a candidate's message. Both Brown and Hughes could benefit their campaigns with debatelike appearances, he suggested. While Brown has been more visible to Fort Wayne voters in the three years she's spent on City Council, Hughes has been an elected official more than twice as long as Brown.

There's a lot to what Downs says. I've been a strong supporter of debates and have written a number of editorials over the years urging various candidates to submit to them. But my enthusiams for them has cooled in recent years, because they really are not real debates, with opposing ideas vigorously defended and attacked. They're mostly a chance for candidates to reel off their sound bites and talking points. A lot of the time, they don't even bother to respond directly to the question asked.

They do have some value. They let voters who don't know candidates well get at least a sense of what the opponents stand for. And sometimes, the participants even accidentally blurt out something meaningful or revealing.

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