I remember when the League of Women voters, the traditional organizers of the US presidential debates, withdrew in 1988, back at the end of the Reagan reign when we were about to say hello a former CIA director, George H.W. Bush, as president. The League's statement read in part
"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates ... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter . It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."

Obama was in his 20's at this time. I wonder to what extent he knows that he is working within a process that, way back then, had already become intolerably corrupt to even a staid middle-of-the-road institution like the LWV? And to what extent "hope" and "change" can come out a process that was certifiably rotten 20 years ago, and has only become worse since?