A Vote for the Quirky Question

I liked the final question of the October Democratic Debate.

There, I said it.

In fact, I hope the impressive moderator quartet of Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow, Kristen Welker and Ashley Parker have the guts to ask the quirky question in this week’s debate.

After three hours of listening to presidential candidates substantively articulate policies, defend choices, tout records, and sometimes argue, in October this was a welcome ending courtesy of Anderson Cooper:

“Last week, Ellen Degeneres was criticized after she and former President George W. Bush were seen laughing together at a football game. Ellen defended their friendship, saying, ‘We’re all different and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK, that we’re all different.’ So in that spirit, we’d like you to tell us about a friendship that you’ve had that would surprise us and what impacts it’s had on you and your beliefs.”

No, this is not a climate change question, as the critics decried. And I would never suggest it’s as important as that.

However, we have had some debates already and there are more slated and they are not all going to include every vital issue of our time. We can learn all we need to know about the candidates’ stances on climate change and more by clicking on their websites and…