The Debate We Need

The American Dream is slipping out of reach for more and more families. Yet instead of addressing the root crises, our national debate has been hijacked by pigs, lipstick and tabloid gossip.

In response, the Institute for America's Future launched a 7-week campaign to demand a debate worthy of a great nation in trouble [1]. It started with a New York Times ad series demanding a debate worthy of America. We then stepped up pressure for the debate we need by launching a petition drive aimed at the moderators of the presidential and VP debates: Tom Brokaw, Gwen Ifill, Jim Lehrer, and Bob Schieffer. By the end of our campaign nearly 13,000 progressives signed our petition, which helped us send a clear signal to the moderators: we deserve a debate worthy of a great nation in trouble.

Compared to the gotcha-debates of the primaries, our campaign was a great success. Spurred by the gravity of the financial crisis, and pressured by progressives like us and a public sick of politics not being focused on the issues that matter to them, the debate moderators changed the script from the primary debates and gave Americans a focus on the issues. Amazingly, the first three debates contained no petty distractions from the issues, however we were notably disappointed in the final debate when moderator Bob Schieffer drove the debate toward gotcha politics and wasted 15 minutes that should have been spent on discussing critical issues. However, overall, the campaign was a great success.