Adult or Adolescent?

I'm aware that more than a few have already weighed-in on the "This or that?" gimmick used by CNN moderator John King in last night's first GOP debate--"Coke or Pepsi?  Mild or spicy?"--but I just can't let it pass without comment.

This was bad, altogether bad, and not just because it was corny.  Even if it worked, no, especially if it worked, it doesn't so much personalize the candidates, as it was apparently intended to do, as diminish them, and along with them, the very serious process in which we are now engaged.

Second, it's revealing, or should be, and disturbingly so.  The same John King we witnessed prancing around on the stage asking silly questions like "Leno or Conan?" will, on Sunday morning, among other like-minded pundits, sit and offer what appear to be informed and sober judgements about this or that candidate, this or that plan.  I'm sorry, but I can't take seriously anyone who participates in turning the election of a president into the equivalent of a TV game show.

I'm afraid this is of a piece with Rep. Weiner's photos of his private parts.  Unless and until we, the electorate, accept nothing less than adult fare from both the candidates and the people who make their living reporting on them, we'll competently solve very few, if any, of the grave troubles facing us as a nation.