No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates

Farah, George; George Farah

ISBN 10: 1583226303 / ISBN 13: 9781583226308

Published by Seven Stories Press, New York, London, Toronto, ON, Canada & Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 2004

About this Item

224 + vii pp. An excellent, spotlessly clean copy! Clean, fresh, sharp, tight, essentially and virtually flawless copy with crisp pages, spotlessly clean text, and very light shelf wear.

Seller Inventory # 1iiEd0022

Bibliographic Details

• Title: No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press, New York, London, Toronto, ON, Canada & Melbourne, VIC, Australia
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1583226303
• ISBN 13: 9781583226308
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Illustrator: POLLEN, New York (Jacket Design); John Mottern/CORBIS (Front Cover Image); Kike Arnal (Author Photo); India Amos (Text Design)
• Edition: A Seven Stories Press 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Like New
• Seller catalogs:
  • American Studies, History, Politics & Culture
  • US Politics & History, Amer. Presidency
  • Current Affairs, Current Events, Politics

About this title

Synopsis

Broadcast to tens of millions of Americans, the presidential debates are the Super Bowl of politics. A good performance before the cameras can vault a contender to the front of the pack, while a gaffe spells national embarrassment and can savage a candidacy. The slim margin for error has led the two major parties to seek—and achieve, under the aegis of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates—tight control through scripting, severe time limits, and the exclusion of third-party candidates. In No Debate, author and lobbyist George Farah argues that these staged recitations make a mockery of free and fair presidential elections.

With urgency and clarity, this book reviews the history of presidential debates, the impact of the debates since the advent of television, the role of the League of Women Voters, the antidemocratic activity of the CPD, and the specific ways that the Republicans and Democrats collude to remove all spontaneity from the debates themselves. The author presents the complete text of a previously unreleased secret document between the Republicans and Democrats that reveals the degree to which the two parties—not the CPD—dictate the terms of the debates. In the final chapter, Farah lays out a compelling strategy for restoring the presidential debates as a nonpartisan, unscripted, public events that help citizens—not corporations or campaign managers—decide who is going to run the White House.

About the Author

GEORGE FARAH is the founder and executive director of Open Debates, a Washington-based nonprofit committed to reforming the presidential debate process. He is also a student at Harvard Law School. His articles have appeared in Extra! Magazine and The Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as other publications.