The Format
Future the town hall format encouraged a cursory treatment of the widest possible breadth of topics at the expense of in-depth analysis. Instead of focusing on a single topic in the tradition of the New England town meeting, the Richmond format allowed questions on any subject of interest to the questioners. Although this created the impression that no topics were precluded, the markets, the national deficit, physical infrastructure, crime in cities term limits health care, the national dept, Social Security, America’s role in the new world order, creating and the prospect of an African American and female ticket winning the presidency. Given the number of issues addresses in 90 minutes, it is not surprising that the treatment of any specific issue was extremely superficial.