[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Sacramento voters who were hoping to see a debate last night between the candidates for Mayor were probably wondering if their TV was tuned to The Comedy Channel instead of the local ABC affiliate.

What was billed as a critical forum between the seven candidates vying for Mayor was largely reduced to a laugh-a-thon. It was Exhibit A for why one of the top contenders, Kevin Johnson, has skipped these events in favor of precinct walking.

Why was it a semi-disaster?

Let's begin with the candidates on stage. Most of them had no business being there. They're not running campaigns. They simply paid to have their name on the ballot. Why there wasn't criteria (polling threshold, fundraising or expenditure threshold) for weeding down the field is beyond me. The precious hour of debate had to be divided between the entire field of candidates, giving none of them time to articulate much of anything.

Then there was the format. Candidates had 30 seconds to respond to questions. Barack Obama can't answer a question in 30 seconds. Did the sponsors really think these candidates could? There was no follow-up, no opportunity for candidates to respond to attacks from other candidates.

There's more...