"Dog and Pony shows"

The presidential AND vice-presidential debates are nothing more than a "dog and pony show." They ask questions like, "What do you plan to do for the economy?" Questions that would require HOURS of details to answer, and expect them to answer in five minutes or less. There is NO WAY they can give substantive answers to such questions so they resort to their "boilerplate (stock)" answers that don't really mean anything. You can't learn anything substantive from such shows, unless a candidate really screws up with one of his answers, as Obama did with his "share the wealth" answer to "Joe the Plumber's" question, which was brought up time after time (Joe was mentioned 23 times during just that debate). That answer revealed a lot more about Obama's socialistic leanings than anything I could have said. (Just common sense)