The Tavis Smiley Presidential Forum: "Showtime At The Apollo!"

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And now for the bad news.

The bad news was that it wasn't a debate. Not at all. No point and counterpoint, no follow-up questions or rebuttals. After nearly half an hour of overlong Negro Introductions and perorations about the event's historic importance candidates were allowed no more than 60 or 70 seconds per question, sometimes as little as 40 or 45 seconds. Within this format sound bytes often triumphed over substance. Hillary Clinton sidestepped a difficult question about black women and AIDS with a pandering line about how if AIDS were the number one cause of death among white woman it would be dealt with differently, a mumbled sentence or two in the middle and another flourish about dealing with AIDS the way they used to when it was a gay man's disease in the golden age of her hubby's presidency. Time's up. Next contestant, next question. It was closer to being a game show than a presidential debate. Senator Chris Dodd accurately gauged the mood of the affair, volunteering to take "Global Warming for $600!"

"It was closer to being a game show than a presidential debate. "

Presidential debates and forums usually include some ordinary folks, either as audience members or sometimes as questioners. But Smiley's studio audience seemed to be mainly people like himself -- black A-list celebrities and entertainers, many of them guests on his shows, with a thick layer of current and former black elected and appointed officials. Studio cameras cut restlessly back and forth between the candidates and Al Sharpton next to Harry Belafonte, Michael Eric Dyson, Terri McMillan, Iyanla Vanzant, Ruby Dee and Sonia Sanchez, members of Congress Rangel, Waters, and Jackson-Lee, that guy from the Young & the Restless, and many more.

It wasn't exactly BET or the Image Awards, but it made me wonder. Was this a presidential debate? Or was it another marketing opportunity? Does Tavis think black people won't watch a presidential debate without black celebrities on camera? Or was Tavis just flexing his own "star power" - reassuring audiences and sponsors that any time they see him they might see some other celeb too? Journalists and media people of all types including this correspondent were exiled to another room.

The candidates were never directly asked a "when will you get us out of Iraq" question, despite the fact that African Americans are more against this war than anyone. One would think we deserve to be able to evaluate the candidates on this important issue side by side.