This really can’t be considered much of a surprise, what with so-called presidential ‘debates’ being nothing more than amplified PR opportunities for candidates, featuring commentary and remarks with the spontaneity of a performance by the Disney Hall of Presidents. But it does seem to expose yet a new low in the downward spiral of any shred of credibility of one of these ‘performances’ by these contenders, where elections are pretty much just a higher stakes version of ‘American Idol’.

Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred ‘diamonds or pearls’ at last night’s debate, wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Putting the ‘mock’ in democracy. Read the full report Here.

Oh, and don’t forget that presidential debates are now run by the “Commission on Presidential Debates”, a private corporation created by and for the Democratic and Republican parties. The League of Women Voters used to organize and run them, but in 1988 rejected the demands for controlling the debates by the two ‘major’ parties and released a statement saying that they were withdrawing support because “the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter”.

The flower of that seed of fraud is now in full bloom.