IF this is truly the campaign of the new media, candidates should be required to answer questions only on their cellphone, BlackBerry or other personal digital assistant, so we can size up their personal text message codes, ring tones and thumb-typing skills.
The questioners could be sweaty fat guys muscling people aside as they get off airplanes, shouting loudly into cellphones: “Rudy, I just landed. Can we talk?” “Hillary! Hey! Mike here! Can you hear me? Hello? Hello?”
Calls would have to be routed through Mumbai so the candidates could offer their positions on Islamic rage and inquire about their car insurance rates simultaneously.
In 1992 someone asked me how I would change the presidential debate format. I proposed handing each of the candidates a double martini in the firm belief that would get them beyond their canned answers.
I think in 2007 we can pair up the martini past and the electronic future. How long would Joe Biden talk on a cellphone after knocking back a big Gibson, straight up?
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