"Debate" Lacking Actual Debate Qualifications

Here is a transcript of the debate from CNN here, and you can decide for yourself if it holds up to the general definition of a debate listed in the OED. Of course, it is tough to have too much of contention, dispute, or controversy when the rules for the debate are as extensive as they were. Lynn Sweet, a columnist for the Chicago-Sun Times, wrote a blog about the rules can be found here. According to which, the candidates can't directly ask questions of each other or even move outside of their "designated areas." The moderator is not allowed to ask follow-up questions of the audience member's questions and the audience member's aren't allowed to switch questions or ask a follow-up.
 
Jack Shafer, the editor-at-large from Slate magazine wrote an interesting piece entitled, "This 'Town Hall' Debate is Neither" which I think emphasizes the fact that politics, especially presidential debates, are more of a performance than a genuine, substantial debate. In the article he writes about how in a real town-hall debate, "The crazy questions, the impolite questions, and even the left-field questions about such things as the price of a gallon of milk push candidates out of their comfort zones, away from their talking points, and to some uncultivated acre of their psyches where voters can observe their thinking processes" and predicted that we'd "see almost none of that" in this town-hall debate.
 
I asked Jack Shafer his opinion about why this town-hall debate was, according to the title of the article, "more of a dance recital than an honest head-to-head between the candidates."  Was it because of the economic crisis? The nature of the candidates? Why had these rules been put in place to hamper the authenticity of the debate? He answered that "It's all about the campaigns, which set the rules, trying to limit the damage from the "debate." Nobody gets fired if the match is a draw, which is what I think it was." Though it may be the truth, it still seems disappointing that the majority of the mainstream media organizations are posting polls about who "won" the debate or recounting quotations from the debate instead of challenging these campaign rules. I think these rules should almost come as a disclaimer alongside anyone who watches or reads the transcript or articles about the debate reading "no actual debating happening here."