Skip to main content
CNN
Part of complete coverage from
Bob Greene

Let candidates debate one-on-one

By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor
October 21, 2012 -- Updated 1501 GMT (2301 HKT)
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, order food at a Wendy's restuarant in Richmond Heights, Ohio, on Tuesday. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, order food at a Wendy's restuarant in Richmond Heights, Ohio, on Tuesday.
HIDE CAPTION
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
From the campaign trail
<<
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
>
>>
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Bob Greene: Presidential debates have tried all kinds of formats
  • He suggests a debate between two candidates -- with no moderator
  • Voters would see how candidates deal with unpredictable situations, he says

Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen."

(CNN) -- Over the years, it seems that just about every format imaginable has been used for debates between presidential candidates.

Lecterns. Chairs. No chairs. Tables. No tables. Open stages to walk around on.

Moderators working solo, like Jim Lehrer at this year's first presidential debate and Martha Raddatz at the vice presidential debate. Moderators with panels of reporters. Questions submitted by the audience. Questions submitted by viewers at home. Town halls, like the one that will be moderated by CNN's Candy Crowley on Tuesday.

Yet, 52 years after the first televised presidential debate, there still often seems something stilted and dry about some of them (but not all: witness last week's high-energy vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan). Frequently, though, the staffs of the people running for the presidency negotiate the ground rules so fussily that the debates can at times feel like some sort of candidates' cotillion.

So what if, for one debate some year, it was agreed to try the one format that has not been tested?

The debate would still be 90 minutes in prime evening time. The proceedings would still be telecast live on all the networks. There would still be an audience in the auditorium.

But there would be no moderator, and no panel of questioners. There would be no subject matter agreed to in advance.

There would be no rules.

None.

Crowley: "keeping the voters in mind"
Opinions differ on Biden's laughter
Do the claims add up?
Ryan: Romney cares about 100%

At the top of the hour, the two candidates would come out onto the stage. There wouldn't even need to be an announcer making an introduction.

And then. ...

It would be up to them.

They would have 90 minutes to talk to the audience, and to each other. To argue, and try to persuade, with no referee.

It just might be fascinating. Their staffs, as campaign staffs will do, would have prepared them and would have come up with tactics for each of them to take over the debate. And you can bet that the two candidates would fall back on those rehearsed tactics. For about 15 minutes.

But then they would realize that, with 75 or so minutes left, they had better figure out a way to talk about things with each other, and with the nation.

It would be like when people get stuck in an elevator together: They talk because they have to. They may feel that they have nothing in common, but now they're here. In the elevator suspended between floors, there's no one but the two of them.

Surprising things can be said and learned. There's no blueprint. No script.

If a presidential debate of this sort were to be attempted, the audience in the auditorium, and at home, might find out some things about the candidates they would never discern in a tightly formatted, moderated debate, or in a standard-issue stump speech. And the candidates might find out a few things about each other -- maybe even find some unanticipated common ground. Funny things can happen in an elevator that isn't going anywhere.

Some of what unfolds might have little to do with the specific words that are spoken. Is one of the candidates overbearing and selfish in how he uses the time -- does he refuse to let his opponent get a word in? That would be a good thing for the voters to know. Is one of the candidates lighthearted and easygoing as he deals with the empty minutes in the company of the person he is running against? That would be instructive to see. Who's the leader? Who heats up? Who is unflappable?

There are, after all, occasions when presidents meet one-on-one with powerful foreign leaders, with no one to guide the conversation. This might be a good approximation of that -- presidential candidates unplugged, on their own, with no escape hatch.

(Or the debate might instead turn out to be an approximation of a pro-wrestling cage match, in suits and ties instead of trunks.)

Of course, once candidates took part in one debate with this format, they and their staffs would undoubtedly devise a way to screw it up for the next time, to make it bland and suck all the life out of it. But for one night -- that first night it was tried -- it just might make for great, riveting viewing.

Or -- let's be candid -- it might turn out to be an utter flop, like the announcerless National Football League telecast that took place in 1980, when NBC Sports, as an experiment, put on a regular-season game between the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins with no announcers or commentators -- just the sights and sounds of the action. The post-game consensus was that it wasn't such a splendid idea at all.

But two candidates, stuck in the presidential-debate elevator, depending on their own wits, intelligence and deeply held beliefs to carry the night? With just the two of them to figure it all out, and the entire nation watching?

There is at least a chance that it could develop into one of the most spontaneous and illuminating evenings of politics ever televised.

There's only one way to find out.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.

ADVERTISEMENT
Part of complete coverage on
Opinion on the news
October 5, 2013 -- Updated 1609 GMT (0009 HKT)
Ten views on the shutdown, from contributors to CNN Opinion
October 5, 2013 -- Updated 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)
Peggy Drexler says Sinead O'Connor makes good points in her letter to Miley Cyrus, but the manner of delivery matters
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 1956 GMT (0356 HKT)
Sen. Rand Paul says there's no excuse for President Barack Obama to reject any and every attempt at compromise.
October 7, 2013 -- Updated 0406 GMT (1206 HKT)
Amy Stewart says the destruction of hornets' habitats sends them into cities and towns in their search for food
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 2331 GMT (0731 HKT)
John Sutter asks: When will homophobia in the United States start seeming so ridiculous it's laughable?
October 5, 2013 -- Updated 0853 GMT (1653 HKT)
Maurizio Albahari says the Mediterranean chronicle of death cannot end merely as a result of tougher penalties on smugglers, additional resources for search-and-rescue operations, and heightened military surveillance
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 2106 GMT (0506 HKT)
Richard Weinblatt says cops followed a standard of "objective reasonableness" in their split-second reaction to a serious threat, when a woman rammed police barricades near the White House.
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 1130 GMT (1930 HKT)
Ted Galen Carpenter says change of policy should begin with the comprehensive legalization of marijuana.
October 5, 2013 -- Updated 2031 GMT (0431 HKT)
Amardeep Singh: Victims of hate crimes and those convicted of them should work to overcome fear of one another.
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 1044 GMT (1844 HKT)
Meg Urry says a two-week government shutdown could waste $3 million, $5 million, even $8 million of taxpayer investment.
October 3, 2013 -- Updated 1332 GMT (2132 HKT)
Frida Ghitis: Most of the world is mystified by the most powerful country tangled in a web of its own making.
October 3, 2013 -- Updated 1346 GMT (2146 HKT)
Ellen Fitzpatrick and Theda Skocpol say the shutdown is a nearly unprecedented example of a small group using extremist tactics to try to prevent a valid law from taking effect.
October 4, 2013 -- Updated 1911 GMT (0311 HKT)
Danny Cevallos asks, in a potential trial in the driver assault case that pits a young man in a noisy biker rally against a dad in an SUV, can bias be overcome?
October 3, 2013 -- Updated 1410 GMT (2210 HKT)
Ben Cohen and Betty Ahrens say in McCutcheon v. FEC, Supreme Court should keep to the current limit in individual political donation
October 2, 2013 -- Updated 1616 GMT (0016 HKT)
Dean Obeidallah says if you are one of the 10% who think Congress is doing a good job, people in your family need to stage an immediate intervention.
October 2, 2013 -- Updated 1452 GMT (2252 HKT)
Let the two parties fight, but if government isn't providing services, Bob Greene asks, shouldn't taxpayers get a refund?
October 2, 2013 -- Updated 1658 GMT (0058 HKT)
Kevin Sabet says legalization in the U.S. would sweep the causes of drug use under the rug.
September 25, 2013 -- Updated 1359 GMT (2159 HKT)
James Moore says it is time for America to move on to a new generation of leaders.

Most Popular

Today's five most popular stories

Boehner vows no deal on budget or debt limit without spending talks with Obama

'I'm the original voice of Siri'

U.S. terror raids: 2 operations. 2 outcomes. 5 questions

Graphene: 'Miracle material' will be in your home sooner than you think

Boy hops plane to Vegas, apparently alone and without ticket

More
ADVERTISEMENT