\n\t| Emanuel Cleaver<\/td> | Newt Gingrich<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n Week 1, Night 2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t| Democrat<\/th> | Republican<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n | \n\n\t| Bernie Sanders<\/td> | Rick Perry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n\t| Debbie Wasserman-Schultz<\/td> | Rick Santorum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n\t| Maxine Waters<\/td> | Jon Huntsman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n\t| Tom Harkin<\/td> | Herman Cain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n The next week the deck could be shuffled so that no candidate faced one who he or she previously debated. The issues may be similar to those from the first week or they might be different. Frivolous (Coke or Pepsi) questions would not be allowed. The moderators would be creditable journalists such as Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill, or Judy Woodruff. There would be no silly YouTube or Twitter questions.<\/p>\n This has the potential to be beneficial for both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats would get a message (or more likely a combination of messages) out at a time when they are not being heard with the exception of the president. Republicans would have to stand up against the type of opposition they will face in Fall, 2012. Their supporters will see which ones can successfully parry arguments from Democrats.<\/p>\n How could it be worse that Republicans trying to distinguish themselves from one another when they essentially agree on everything. It\u2019s worth a try and certainly would come closer to \u201cmust see TV\u201d than what we have now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may recall that in one of the earlier Republican debates, all candidates were asked if they could support a debt reduction plan that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,16,573],"tags":[159,1270,1271],"yoast_head":"\n Republicans need Democrats in their debates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems as if the Republicans have the stage all to themselves -- and they all seem to sound the same. How about one-on-one debates between Repubs. and Dems.?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2011\/10\/04\/republicans-need-democrats-in-their-debates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republicans need Democrats in their debates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It seems as if the Republicans have the stage all to themselves -- and they all seem to sound the same. 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<\/a>So here\u2019s a thought to remedy the problem. Suppose we established a \u201csweet sixteen tournament\u201d between Democrats and Republicans and start it now. Republicans would not have the luxury of parroting one another and assuming that no one likes Social Security in its present form. Each Republican would have to face off against another Democrat. You might have two consecutive nights, each with four half-hour debates. President Obama would be exempt from the competition since his chance will come later and he has a tougher day job than any of the other participants.<\/p>\n