Did the presidential debate provide a cognitive stress test?

A First Opinion essay urged debate monitors to "hold both candidates to high standards by asking pointed questions and challenging false assertions." They didn't. 

June 30, 2024 Check out STAT+

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By Patrick Skerrett Editor, First Opinion

In an "I can't bear to watch this but can't look away" moment on Thursday, I plunked myself in front of the television to watch the first debate of the 2024 election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. One reason for watching is that I wanted to see if the moderators of the debate, CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, would fulfill even a little bit of what psychiatrist Anand Kumar, past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, urged them to do in a First Opinion essay: assess the mental function of each candidate — both Biden and Trump have skirted taking cognitive tests — by holding the candidates "to high standards by asking pointed questions, challenging false assertions, and imposing discipline into the process by using all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion." They didn't. In fact, the moderators often failed to get the debaters to answer their questions. Oh well, you can't always get what you want. But I think the moderators did a disservice to the American public by not following Kumar's suggestion. This week's episode of the First Opinion Podcast offers a conversation with Congresswoman Diana DeGette that explores abortion and reproductive rights in the U.S. two years after the Supreme Court's historic Dobbs decision. The other baker's dozen First Opinion essays this week covered topics ranging from why the FDA needs to embrace phage therapy to fight the growing surge of antibiotic resistant bacteria to what the U.S. can learn from Canada about treating people with addictions. You can read them all here. As ever, if you have an idea for First Opinion or an essay that's ready to roll, please send it to first.opinion@statnews.com.

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