I hope you had time to watch this. It displaced the local and national news on my TV anyway. It was a back-to-back interview with each of our leading candidates by the pastor of a church named Rick Warren. I've never heard of the man and I am curious how this program gained center stage in prime time.
It was riveting to be sure. Hard questions, good commentary. Both candidates squirmed to some extent and each revealed strengths and weaknesses. It seemed as if (contrary to how you feel with "official" interviews on the standard CNN & ABC channels) that the candidates were not given the questions ahead of time. Hooray for that in my view, why should they have a chance to rehearse their answers, anyway?
But my problem is that it seemed faith-based, to use a phrase that Mr. Warren posed. Too many questions about church-related issues. It felt almost predestined, to use another religious word. Why were we asking about religions in other countries at all, and not any questions about the sad state of the economy here?
For example, there was a question that said "should we have merit pay for teachers?". I almost gagged. Hey, let's do that for politicians, what do you say? Of course I'm a retired teacher (and yes, I agree with merit pay) but aren't we dodging here? Those who write the laws are exempt from most all our rules. Minimum wage being the least of them. How about rewarding politicians who actually do their job and represent us . . . you know, we the people?
Why was this major media event held in a church in the first place? Couldn't the major networks have done a better, less biased job? Yes, it seemed biased. In favor of conservative, right wing, heartland America. Is that wrong?
What do you think?
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