Dick Cavett suggests some questions that someone might want to put to Donald Trump and David Letterman speaks of what he would ask Trump if he had the chance now.
Actually, I've been thinking that the political discourse in this country might be better off if folks running for public office or their surrogates weren't interviewed by the hosts of talk shows that are primarily configured for comedy. I know it's good for their ratings but that whole format is calculated to make the guest seem witty and charming…and to get them off the stage quickly.
Only rarely in such a format do we get even a brief substantive discussion about anything that matters. It's hard to do that when you're always six or less minutes from a commercial break, a band is playing guests on and off, and there's a studio audience present which expects to laugh at least once every 60 seconds. Not to compare anyone to Hitler but in that format, Hitler could look like a nice guy as he told some delightful, slightly self-deprecating anecdote and then set up the clip he brought of him invading Poland.
Cavett in his piece says he once said to a politician on his show, "Do you think, now, that perhaps you could come up with an answer at least remotely related to the question I asked?" Not even putative journalists do that and if you're on a talk show, it's real easy to filibuster and run out the clock until the next ad for Bud Lite. The host might be able to slip in a zinger — Letterman did on occasion, as did Cavett — but one is about the limit, especially when you've got Don Rickles in your green room waiting to come on and call everyone a hockey puck. As even Letterman admits, he was not all that well-equipped to cross-examine wanna-be leaders.
I'm sorry Jon Stewart's current plans do not include a weekly interview show…but of course, the people I'd most want to see him question probably wouldn't go anywhere near such a program. Why should they when there are plenty of places that will give them television time and only lob a few softballs?