Worst Debate Ever

Two veteran mainstream reporters in Politico, John Harris and Jim Vandehei, declare last night's Obama/McCain debate the Worst Ever and long for a Ross Perot or independent to be on the stage. But they seem clueless about the main culprit: the BI-partisan (not "non-partisan," as mainstream outlets call it) Commission on Presidential Debates. They write:

The problem is the commission that has been invested with pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates but, in fact, weakly defers to candidates and clings to antiquated formats. No serious candidate would skip a debate. So the commission should use its leverage to insist that the debates are interesting to voters, rather than safe for candidates.

This misses the point. No one except the TV networks and mainstream media vests the CPD with "pseudo-constitutional status to run the debates." As I pointed out in 2000, the commission was set up by the two major parties to make the debates "safe for candidates" of the two major parties. The League of Women Voters and other truly nonpartisan groups or college campuses would be happy to sponsor debates but the TV nets are wedded to the CPD.