Wanted: A Kitchen Debate

(Crosstalk)

Biden: Look ...

(Crosstalk)

Biden: Let me translate. Let me have a chance to translate.

The only thing missing was stage directions: As Ryan speaks, Biden smirks and chortles. Also, there was no cursing. "Malarkey," I'm pretty sure, is not part of the Mamet vocabulary.

The Mamet comparison isn't simple snarkiness. It underscores the fundamental frustration of this campaign season in general and the debates in particular: The candidates talk past one another. They fail to engage; they evade direct answers. The audience is left unsettled and confused.

Except in this case the audience is voters, not theater-goers. What study to believe? Whose guarantee to trust?

I am a believer in debates in much the same way that Churchill supposedly viewed democracy: the worst form of government, except for all the others.

With the candidates ducking sustained interviews in serious settings, debates offer the last, best chance for piercing the fog of competing claims and promises.

Debates have always had an inevitable element of political theater: What, after all, do we remember about the first such televised event in 1960 except sweaty Richard Nixon?

But go back and look at the Kennedy-Nixon debates. They are striking for their seriousness and -- this is a relative matter -- candor. Ryan invoked John F. Kennedy's tax cuts, but Kennedy said he "would have no hesitancy in suggesting a tax increase." So, amazingly enough, did Richard Nixon: "I think it may be necessary that we have more taxes." These are not your grandfather's debates -- or your grandfather's Republican Party.

Which brings me to "Cupcake Wars," the Food Network series that is part of the new genre of reality TV cooking shows.

The "Cupcake Wars" format requires contestants to instantaneously come up with offbeat recipes (creative policymaking), to work with a team (leadership ability), to produce 1,000-cupcake displays under immense time pressure (handling the 3 a.m. phone call). Just imagine candidates in the kitchen, sweating it out. After all, if you can't stand the heat ...

I'm not serious, of course. But I worry that the current recipe fails to give voters adequate nourishment, and that the judging by my media colleagues, emphasizing style over substance, makes matters worse. With candidates, as with cupcake, fancy presentation is nice. Whats underneath the icing matters most.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.