Dear Editor
Dear Editor Presidential Debates In his article, "Canceling the Elections" (NL, December 1,1980), Marvin Kitman questions the format and usefulness of the Presidential debates sponsored by the...
...The format of the Presidential debates was far from ideal, as was the process by which it was established...
...lated that will insure that there will be Presidential debates??and better Presidential debates??in the future...
...And they should be improved...
...DavidL...
...We had originally proposed a series of three Presidential debates with different formats and covering different subject areas...
...Unfortunately, attacking "social challenges" does not produce cars, video-tape recorders, cameras, tires, copying machines, etc., etc...
...With both objectives in mind, the League plans to hold a series of public hearings throughout the country...
...We'll be seeking out information and ideas not only on the subject of format, but also on the number of debates, the treatment of non-major party candidates, etc...
...Washington, D.C...
...Jack Margolin...
...In fact, the "modified press conference" format of both the Reagan-Anderson and Carter-Reagan debates, negotiated to the minutest detail by the League and the candidates' representatives, became, in effect, the price for the candidates' participation in these debates...
...The League was far from satisfied with the resultant formats...
...How far we have come...
...We hope these hearings will permit all views to be heard and plans to be formuThe New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...Dear Editor Presidential Debates In his article, "Canceling the Elections" (NL, December 1,1980), Marvin Kitman questions the format and usefulness of the Presidential debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters...
...This format, utilized successfully in two of the 1980 primary season Republican forums sponsored by the League, was not acceptable to the candidates' representatives...
...That takes excellence in schools, production and motivation??something we no longer possess...
...Merit, once the touchstone of American technological and industrial growth, has been sacrificed to the "social challenge...
...While we agree with many of Kitman's assertions regarding the format, we remain steadfast in our belief that debates serve a useful and important function...
...Runt j. Htnerfeld Chair, League of Women Voters Education Fund Abscam In his article, "Uneasy Thoughts About Abscam" (NL, October 6,1980), Joseph P. Fried seems to sympathize with an Abscam defendant who argued that he was not guilty because he never intended to render any services in return for the money he accepted (and thus did not accept a bribe...
...Marina Del Rey, Calif...
...Unless we bestir ourselves and again emphasize quality in all things, the decline in this country may accelerate and impoverish us all, minorities included...
...Bruck American Decline The diminished respect for the United States that Donald Kirk found in Tokyo because of our economic and technological decline ("Correspondents' Correspondence" NL, January 12) is not due, as he thinks, to the United States putting off "confronting its very real social challenges at home...
...Apart from the dubious veracity of such claims, one used to believe that any case where money was accepted on false pretenses constituted fraud, and could be prosecuted as such??yet this seems not to have occurred to any of the participants in the Abscam proceedings...
...When it became apparent that the Cleveland debate would offer the only opportunity for the two major party candidates to appear together, we suggested that the broad range of campaign issues could best be covered in a format that would produce the freest possible exchange of ideas??namely, a format with a moderator (but no panel) to direct the flow of debate between the two candidates...
...It is due to the confrontation itself...
...The League continues to believe that debates offer an important opportunity for voters to learn about and compare candidates and their positions on the issues...
...Throughout a long campaign in which 30- and 60- second spots were almost the only fare voters were fed, the Presidential debate in Cleveland was the first and only time that the public could see and hear the major party candidates at the same time, in the same place, and under the same conditions...
...Under pressure from militants and "civil rights" activists, we have embarked in the last 15 years on an authoritarian effort to forcibly reorder society by racial busing, affirmative action, quota systems, to cite only the most obvious...
...The result could have been anticipated...
...The League also believes that debates should become a part of every Presidential election...
...RioPiedras.P.R...
Vol. 64 • February 1981 • No. 3
