{"id":77954,"date":"2016-02-15T18:52:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T18:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=77954"},"modified":"2023-04-25T14:07:11","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T14:07:11","slug":"behind-mic-mano-mano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-mano-mano\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic: Mano A Mano"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the NFL <\/a>has completed play and with college basketball, the NBA<\/a>, and the NHL <\/a>moving to their respective championships, I find I am desperate for some intense competition.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I enjoy watching the serenity and landscape of golf, but it does lack the \u201cmano a mano\u201d aspect that the aforementioned sports offer up.\u00a0 But, I am happy to say I have found a new \u201cblood sport\u201d \u2013 the Republican Debates!<\/p>\n

I was for many years the Debate coach at Wilson High School and I am proud to say that we competed quite well against the bigger schools like Allen, Dieruff, Easton, and others.\u00a0 I remember the parameters quite well.\u00a0 There was the debate topic (an issue or resolution), the two sides \u2013 one supporting the issue and one opposing it, and the judges who would decide who won.\u00a0 In other words, both teams formulated their arguments and presented them in a formal way and then the arguments were rebutted by the opposing side.\u00a0 There could be no interruptions and each speaker must wait their turn.\u00a0 There were very formal rules of procedure to follow. The debate was to be only about the issue, not about the personalities making the presentation.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, I have watched both the Republican and Democratic debates when my schedule allowed it.\u00a0 The Republican frays are much more interesting even though they should not be called \u201cdebates\u201d. \u00a0I watched the last one this past Saturday night. \u00a0There were virtually no rules.\u00a0 Personal attacks abounded; interruptions were commonplace; and disparaging comments were the norm. \u00a0The clashes between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, between Cruz and Marco Rubio, between Trump and Jeb Bush are as good as any hockey fight.\u00a0 And the passivity of Dr. Ben Carson in that environment is quite interesting.<\/p>\n

Some of the phrases thrown around were, \u201cYou are the single biggest liar\u201d; \u201cHe\u2019s a nasty guy\u201d; \u201cI am sick and tired of him going after my family\u201d; \u201cHe\u2019ll moon anybody\u201d, and one candidate even attacked another candidate\u2019s mother, his mother!!\u00a0 There are many, many other examples.<\/p>\n

I am not taking any sides here, but I do think there is a much better way for these candidates to conduct themselves and conduct their debates.\u00a0 What would be so wrong, since there are so many so-called \u201cdebates\u201d now, if each debate focused on one, two, or three issues \u2013 immigration, foreign policy, taxation, the economy, abortion, Planned Parenthood, wages, the Supreme Court and so on and so on?\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t it be fair if for each question, each candidate had an opportunity to give their answer without interruption?\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t it be better and refreshing if the moderators had enough knowledge of the few issues for each night to challenge the candidates if, indeed, they contradicted either their past words or their actions?<\/p>\n

Even though we all seem to like a good fight, physical or verbal, it would certainly seem that it would be better for our democracy if the \u201cdebate judges\u201d (the people) would be able to see the true differences between those running for the most powerful office in the world.<\/p>\n

Then and only then, we would have the candidates\u2019 positions to judge who would be the better president, not who is the best at name-calling.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not taking any sides here, just wondering if Presidential debates should actually be more like debates and not free-for-alls. In other words, more \u201cPresidential\u201d.<\/p>\n

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Remember the footage of Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> dragging Janay Palmer out of the elevator in Atlantic City? It was revealed this week that a Revel employee was paid about $105,000 for the video by TMZ<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. The Sports Illustrated<\/a> swimsuit edition is due out soon and already some unveiling, literally, is happening. It is reported that Tiger Woods<\/a>\u2019 former girlfriend and Olympic skier, Lindsay Vonn<\/a>, and MMA star Ronda Rousey<\/a> will be in the issue wearing only body paint.\u00a0 Rumor has it Rousey is on the cover.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. A really good story came out of the PGA <\/a>tour at Pebble Beach<\/a> this week. Vaughn Taylor<\/a> (who?) won!\u00a0 He last won in 2005, and only got into the tournament as an alternate. He took a carry-on bag on the plane to California just to save baggage fees.\u00a0 He was ranked #447 in the world.\u00a0 But he won and made $1.26 million for the victory, $165,000 more than he made the last three years combined.\u00a0 By the way, Phil Mickelson<\/a> missed a five-foot putt on the 18th<\/sup> hole that would have tied him with Taylor.\u00a0 Taylor now qualifies for his first Masters.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. If you want to see one of the best high school games we have ever had on RCN-TV, go to Video-on-Demand to watch Allen play Parkland. Imagine scoring 27 points and being the third leading scorer in the game.\u00a0 The game goes overtime and two other players score more than 30 points.\u00a0 It\u2019s a special game \u2013 one of our very best.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Mark your calendar on February 27. The District basketball and wrestling finals are that day with the Lafayette men playing Colgate starting the day at noon.\u00a0 We will finish up very late into the evening.\u00a0 We will certainly be ESPN-ish that Saturday!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Now that the NFL has completed play and with college basketball, the NBA, and the NHL moving to their respective championships, I find I am desperate for some intense competition.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I enjoy watching the serenity and landscape of golf, but it does lack the \u201cmano a mano\u201d aspect that the aforementioned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[620,412,460,619,621],"class_list":["post-77954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-lindsay-vonn","tag-pga","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sports-illustrated","tag-vaughn-taylor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Mic: Mano A Mano - 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