Keep them on topic

I have watched many political debates over the years, including many presidential, vice presidential, senatorial and House of Representative candidate debates. One thing that seems to be common to all of the debates is the lack of control by the monitors of the debates. Instead of attempting to keep the candidates on subject, the monitors allow the candidates to evade the question and to change the subject.

The Sept. 19 debate was no exception. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers repeatedly said, “… but I would like to talk about …” when asked a specific question.

The purpose of the political debates is to present to the voting public the views of the candidates on a variety of subjects. This cannot happen if the candidates are not forced to answer the questions.

Hopefully the moderators of the future debates between Rep. McMorris Rodgers and Lisa Brown will insist that the candidates answer the questions as posed by the moderators and by the audience, without changing the subject.

Don Tomlinson

Spokane