Date: 2008-10-07 22:51 Subject: Please Dump This Format! Security: Public

This was supposed to be a town-hall debate. It was neither a town hall nor a debate.

Town Halls allow citizens to throw out quirky questions that are outside the same questions the media asks over and over again. However, by Brokaw selecting the questions, it just became the same kind of questions. Ok, the last question was different, but in a real town hall, there is real interaction between the candidates and the attendees. In this format, the questioner got to ask the question for 12 seconds, and we never heard from them again.

To make matters worse, this was no debate. No follow-up questions??? WTF!!! Both candidates just spat out the same talking points which we've heard over and over again. A good follow-up forces that candidate to abandon the talking point and actually explain themselves.

Tonight's loser: Tom Brokaw.