Presidential Debate Results and Anaylsis

HEM

HEM

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E-News Network - Presidential Debate Results and Analysis

With:

World Assembly Delegate Mousebumples
Senator PhDre
Former President Sopo
Senator Modernsin
Chief Justice Malashaan

and moderating, ENN's own HEM Tiberius.
 
QUESTION ONE: "We start off with a private question: Both of you have different paths for Mincomm, why do you say yours is the better path?"​


QUESTION ONE - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga's message seems to be that the lack of an effective in Communciations for this past term means that the whole ministry should be scrapped as a result. He talks about having a "dedicated minister" (who is also involved with the bounty of potential that the Culture Ministry has), which leaves me concerned that Communications will become relatively ignored and underserved. I think there is a lot of untapped potential in Communications, which I feel would go unfulfilled with Oga's stated plan." (5/10)


Sopo: "MinComm is likely the most controversial part of the debate for me, because I disagree with both candidates. Ogastein's approach to solving the problem with Communications is really counterintuitive. His qualm seems to be with the underperformance of the Minister, not the structure of MinComm itself, but he's changing the structure to fix what he suggests is really a leadership problem. A bloated Culture Ministry will only further push EBC/Comm down the chain of command, decreasing accountability. If he wants to change the structure, he should make a better argument for doing so." (4/10)


Malashaan: "Oga has some good ideas but I feel he consistently overplayed the "everything is broken" line when in my view things have developed fairly well over the last 2 months." (4/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein set the tone for the whole debate by immediately coming out swinging, criticizing the slow and erratic pace of the Comm ministry and observing that the EBC was conspicuously absent in Kraken's platform. In this first question, the balance between informative answers and criticizing the other guy was off, making it difficult to get a clear picture of Ogastein's plans for the EBC. That said, I think pushing for a return to form for the EBC is a smart move that makes his position sufficiently distinct." (7/10)



QUESTION ONE - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "I can't help but wonder if part of the reason why the EBC has underperformed over the past month is because Kraken thinks the fixes there should be "easy to implement" as he did well in the position previously. Given his history in the position, and his statements to that effect, I think he will focus on Communications and the EBC, should he be re-elected. However, he should be held responsible, to some extent, for the relative inactivity of his ministers. Should he be re-elected, I expect an uphill battle in the Senate if he tries to get RZM re-confirmed as MinComm." (7/10)


Sopo: "Kraken's underperformance in regards to MinComm after explicitly running on communications in his first platform puts him in a rough position here. He chalks up problems to a less-than-active minister and a lack of incentives, but I think he needs to be more creative to get us to forget about this term's poor performance. At least Ogastein suggests some concrete changes (though in the wrong direction). We need to bring in private media and consolidate MinComm's efforts into one coherent whole to be more successful." (3/10)


Malashaan: "Kraketopia acknowledged that there were problems and provided a reasonably compelling case for how further education would address these problems. However, I found his answers a little defensive and would have liked to see a more multi-faceted strategy to address the real problems facing MinComm." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken's mistake here was letting himself get sucked into a purely EBC discussion, which of course was a self-admitted weak spot in his last term. Still, he offered a spirited defense for his prioritizing of the dispatch hub, and is later much more forthcoming about his future plans for the EBC. The training program idea is a fresh one, but it's difficult to gauge how effective that might be in something like the EBC". (5/10)


QUESTION ONE FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 20/40
Kraketopia: 21/40 *****WINNER*****
 
QUESTION TWO: "Do you plan on cutting the red tape and making it easier to join and apply for things in order to encourage growth? If so.... how? - Also just generally, take this question as a "how will you encourage more sign-ups where people are needed?"​


QUESTION TWO - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga's statements in this section were ... less than impressive to me. He continues to beat the drum of "THE CSO IS BAD!" and appears to be unaware of the changes that have been made to it - and continues to cite examples from May/early June when the old CSO process was still in place. He states that Kraken's administration is "ignoring the criticism of the CSO" when they instead acknowledged said critcism and made (granted, largely underpublicized) changes as a result. His only "new" ideas involve "increased publicizing of the CSO" ... which isn't terribly groundbreaking." (3/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein gives a very similar answer, also excluding the Navy. I do think his concerns about the CSO reflect similar concerns from several members, though they may be rooted in misunderstanding and lack of clear explanation from the VP about the current state of the CSO. As long as Kraken can't actually explain what's going on in the CSO, OO has the upper hand." (8/10)


Malashaan: "Oga was disadvantaged by going second which resulted in his first comments being to state agreement with his rival. Once the back and forth got going, I found his statement that we should get the CSO "back to some level of activity" when it takes 30 seconds of research to find that the CSO has been very active this term to be disengenuous. It have me the impression (rightly or wrongly) that he was adopting a known public misconception to gain political points" (3/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein gives the same answer as Kraken here, before mentioning the CSO and setting off another tangent. Again, I think that dismissing the suggestion of red tape in Europeia ignores several recent criticisms made by other citizens. While Kraken relies on his trust in Lex's job performance here, Ogastein offers a perspective more in line with other citizens who weren't involved in the CSO. This perspective is a little misguided on the whole, but still Ogastein keeps Kraken on the ropes for the duration. An unusually effective style-over-substance performance." (7/10)



QUESTION TWO - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "I think the CSO was a concern for Kraken at the start of his term, and - while the changes to the CSO should have been better publicized, the appearance of the new form seems much improved. While Oga tries to sell this as a "failure of his administration," this is a point that I view as more a positive example of leadership this term. Something was broken, and the duo in the Goldenblock set about to fix it in a reasonable time frame. The lack of publicity (especially from a duo that ran on "Communication") is my biggest critique." (8/10)


Sopo: "Kraken seems to believe that there is no red tape. I would suggest that the Navy application is a bit excessive (especially for returning members), and I'm still confused as to how the CSO is currently operating. Overall, not too much to be said here." (6/10)


Malashaan: "Kraken's answers were reasonable but not inspiring. I would have liked him to more forceably push back against the idea that the CSO is not well advertized. I know that all newcomers are messaged about it at least twice, and the application form is short and to the point." (7/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken denies the existence of red tape in Europeia. This amid recent complaints about the lengthy Navy application and the CSO, the latter of which became the major point of contention between the candidates. Kraken defends the CSO and his VP's handling of it, as we might expect, but Kraken seemed entirely dismissive of explaining its improvements over the term. I'm still not sure why." (4/10)


QUESTION TWO FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 21/40
Kraketopia: 25/40 *******WINNER*********
 
QUESTION THREE: "Europeia's media sector has long been a vital part of the region, often bridging the gap between culture and politics in ways no other institution can. What are your thoughts on the importance of media (both public and private) in Europeia?"​


QUESTION THREE - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Both candidates said the standard "Media is good. Yay both public and private media!" - probably since the question had already been covered in some part by the EBC converstation. This was an opportunity to expand upon the potential integration of the two departments, but instead both gave boring, pat answers." (4/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein says unsurprisingly that the media is important, with a nice shoutout for the Panda Pen. Expected, acceptable, and brief." (7/10)


Malashaan: "Both candidates gave reasonable answers agreeing that media is good, but neither expanded further or said anything to make them stands out above their rival" (5/10)


Modern Sin: "Everybody likes media. We get it. Both candidates wanted to say their piece and move on to something more engaging. Can't blame em. Who writes these stupid questions?" (5/10)



QUESTION THREE - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Both candidates said the standard "Media is good. Yay both public and private media!" - probably since the question had already been covered in some part by the EBC converstation. This was an opportunity to expand upon the potential integration of the two departments, but instead both gave boring, pat answers." (4/10)


Sopo: "Kraken gives a very similar answer to Ogastein, but explicitly mentioning public media, which I like. Another decent answer." (7/10)


Malashaan: "Both candidates gave reasonable answers agreeing that media is good, but neither expanded further or said anything to make them stands out above their rival" (5/10)


Modern Sin: "Everybody likes media. We get it. Both candidates wanted to say their piece and move on to something more engaging. Can't blame em. Who writes these stupid questions?" (5/10)


QUESTION THREE FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 21/40 *******WINNER*******
Kraketopia: 21/40 **********WINNER*******
 
QUESTION FOUR: "Okay then, moving on, and this one can tie in a bit to the human resources question. There has been much discussion on the management of interior matters and citizen integration in general. Currently, at my personal estimation, we have a boon of newcomers, with more young Europeians around right now than we have seen in quite some time. How are we going to get them involved? What is the best way to further grow this pool of fresh talent and ideas?"​


QUESTION FOUR - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga mentioned some controversial topics here - "cold calling" old members by email, reducing the number of contacts newcomers receive PMs from when they join Europeia, and revamping the telegrams we send out. Considering that the telegrams we currently send out seem to be pretty effective (given the number of newcomers we have active right now), that seems like unnecessary effort. He stuck to his guns - no matter how potentially misguided they may be - and didn't let Kraken shake him from the established goals in his platform. Still, a determination doesn't make up for an ineffective platform. " (3/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein stumbles here on the first issue where he can't effectively run against Kraken's record. He argues that we need to improve the telegrams, but after the success of the current telegrams, that's not a great argument. He also advocated emailing old/former members to encourage them to return, but I maintain that that is a spammy approach which other regions have used on me before--ineffectively. He wants to separate ministries here, which makes little sense to me since he wants to roll Comm back into Culture. It confuses his governing philosophy. Overall, his answers are opportunistic and anti-Kraken where that kind of aggressive approach does not work, simply because Kraken has succeeded for the most part here." (3/10)


Malashaan: "Oga did well to reference the importance of the Culture Ministry, but the rest of his answer highlighted the fact he has not been involved in the higher levels of our government for some time. Many of the things he proposed changing are things that have been shown to be effective, and many of his ideas are things that were recently tested and found ineffective." (4/10)


Modern Sin: "Without r3n's advice or any engagement in Interior policy lately, Ogastein is disadvantaged here. And it shows. He communicates the broad strokes of his ideas well enough, but when asked to get specific his ideas started breaking down quickly. This all just seemed like a set up for his later explanation for why he wanted to split Interior into two ministries, but at this point his reasons for doing so were half-baked." (3/10)



QUESTION FOUR - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Kraken had his first big "I am President" moment here, when he cited the responses he gets to the "leaving telegram" that is sent to nations that leave Europeia to rebut claims made by his opponent that "many newcomers leave because of an information overload." His ideas for further developing the ministry seem like a natural fit within Interior." (8/10)


Sopo: "Kraken doesn't have a lot of substance here other than shifting the Minister's focus to integration and moving TG/tech duties over to a Deputy. However, Kraken has done excellent work bringing in new members, so this is one area where he can definitely get by on his record. He easily takes on OO's concerns, and I think he clearly comes out ahead here." (8/10)


Malashaan: "Kraken addressed this topic in detail. I particularly appreciated his observation that integration needs to be handled on a case by case basis. Kraken really benefited from being the incumbent on this question as he is very familiar with the work that the Ministry has been doing and the projects in the works." (8/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken spends a lot of time just summarizing his platform, but he anticipates Ogastein's own answer by decrying the idea that a separation of Interior and CI will leave us with two equally busy jobs. He challenges Ogastein to offer specific improvements for TGs, which was a good play. Kraken played this one very aggressively and got some of his own ideas across at the same time." (8/10)


QUESTION FOUR FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 13/40
Kraketopia: 32/40 ********WINNER*******
 
QUESTION FIVE: "I think that question is answered; here's another: What is the functional difference between a Deputy Minister of Recruitment and a Minister of Recruitment? Surely these are actually very similar."​


QUESTION FIVE - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga doesn't do himself any favors by trying to bring back the "MinComm" should be eliminated here. He's both condensing and expanding ministries, while Kraken is largely maintaining the status quo (*with the addition of a specific Deputy Minister). His reference to "mential grunt work" makes me think that he's unaware of the recruitment changes (i.e. API, stamps) that have happened over the past few years, as well. His lack of present involvement in this ministry - despite his achievements there in the past - is obvious." (3/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein either does not know what a "functional difference" is or chooses to ignore the definition, giving a very vague answer. He rolls it back a little bit, but not enough to make up for the initial gaffe. Going back to MinComm was also a mistake in my opinion, making him look overeager to return to an issue where he holds the advantage" (3/10)


Malashaan: "Oga did a reasonable job of articulating his position but I wasn't convinced by his argument that his proposal puts recruiting/welcoming and integration on an equal footing whereas Kraken's does not." (4/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein makes his case a little more strongly than Kraken does here. He fires off a few "functional" differences between his and his opponent's recruitment strategies. Moreover, his point that Comm had little going on this term worked more effectively than it did when the candidates were actually talking about Comm! My mind wasn't blown, but I think he's laid out some solid reasons for having two ministries instead of one." (7/10)



QUESTION FIVE - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Kraken doesn't offer much of substance here, other than to highlight the benefit of collaboration within his singular interior ministry. Previously, he mentioned that the singular ministry would help to train (potentially) a future Interior Minster, and he would have been better served to make that point, again, here. Additionally, given Oga's potential misconception about the process involved with sending out telegrams, currently, he could have tried to dig out that point more clearly." (6/10)


Sopo: "Kraken more or less gives Anumia the answer that he's looking for, that there really is no functional difference. He adequately defends his position that the post does not merit an entire Ministry, but it eventually devolves back into Comm and TG concerns. As for the answer to the actual question, Kraken does fine." (6/10)


Malashaan: "Kraken clearly articulated his position without saying anything remarkable." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "Very quickly, the battle lines are drawn for this question. Stripped of CI duties, would the MoI do enough to warrant holding on to his title as Minister proper? Kraken reiterates his negative stance. And re-reiterates it. And once more for good luck. I'm ambivalent as to whether this question is as important as the candidates think it is...but Kraken generally holds his own here, even though his responses were too repetitive for my taste." (5/10)


QUESTION FIVE FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 17/20
Kraketopia: 23/40 ******WINNER******
 
QUESTION SIX: "I'd like to see a couple of -specific- ideas, this time, on precisely how we're going to expand existing methods of getting people involved/trained/engaged in participation."​


QUESTION SIX - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga did a great job of making a shoutout to the great work WritingLegend has done in Culture in the past week or so. However, the suggestion that Europeia, as a political region, should _avoid_ getting newcomers involved in political bodies (the CA, ERN, etc.) seems a bit ... off. He's got ideas worth exploring, but the emphasis could use some editing." (6/10)


Sopo: "I don't like Ogastein's idea to redirect new members to the spam zone, but overall I think his emphasis on Culture as an integration tool is a great one. Throwback Thursday is a good idea. Oga is able to show here that Culture is a strong component of his platform." (7/10)


Malashaan: "I agreed with most of what Oga said, but I couldn't escape the feeling he was mostly suggesting things we already do as if they were new ideas. However, I do think that closer ties between Interior and Culture is very important" (7/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein begins with a curious comment that seems to come out of left field, but he clarifies what he means almost immediately thereafter. (Bias alert: the "EuroChat, spam, and CA" point is one I made myself in the Interior senate committee, so...yeah) His interest in pushing Integration and Culture closer together stands apart from Kraken's own philosophy, and I think it stands pretty well on its own. I would've liked to see more elaboration on this idea, either in the debate or the platform, but I'm intrigued." (8/10)



QUESTION SIX - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Kraken would have been better served to expand further on this section as he glossed over a lot of things without saying too much in great detail. I like his mention of "gameside to forumside conversion through RMB activities" as I think having new ways to get players to the forum (other than TGs is important). A lot of ideas, but not enough elaboration to really help explain what his plans are." (7/10)


Sopo: "Kraken makes a fairly similar point but with less specific ideas. I like that he includes making some parts of the forum more visible, but overall I think his answer is weak relative to Ogastein's." (5/10)


Malashaan: " I like Kraken's focus on education and the suggestion of making greater use of the RMB. The suggestion of making more of the forum visible was bizarre and let him down. As president he should know that very little of the forum is not already visible to newcomers, and the parts that are not are hidden for very good reasons." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "A pretty crowd-pleasing answer, but Ogastein's ideas were more detailed and expansive. Kraken includes a focus on RMB interaction, which is refreshing, and his summary that "being able to educate newcomers" is the cornerstone of his whole platform is right on. I wish there had been debate for this one, as that would have helped Kraken flesh out his ideas more." (6/10)


QUESTION SIX FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 28/40 *******WINNER******
Kraketopia: 24/40
 
Domestic Affairs Portion of the Debate Totals:

Ogastein: 120 / 240 = 50% of possible points
Kraketopia: 146 / 240 = 61% of possible points

HEM: Kraketopia consistently seemed to just edge out Ogastein on Domestic Affairs. With the exception of Question Four -- which Kraketopia's incumbency helped him sweep -- and Question Six, which Ogastein won, Kraketopia generally just scored a few points more than Ogastein.

Much of the panel was frustrated by Ogastein's consistent and not well placed reminders of the few major policy differences between the two candidates. While it is important to remind the voters of the differences between you and your opponent, the panel felt that Ogastein had a clunky and ineffective methodology for this.

The panel itself was originally suppose to contain DAF Chairwoman, Zenny Anumia, who was meant to provide another Ogastein voice to the group. Her absence has left a panel that -- while objective and well credentialed -- may have a slight tilt toward President Kraketopia.

Neither candidate seemed to blow the judges socks off (with Question Four perhaps being an exception) and rarely did a score higher than 7/10 get issued.
 
QUESTION SEVEN(a): "Q: Kraken: Your plans for the FA do not speak of other regions - only of training Europeians! See OO's question... OO: Your platform talks about ending up your term w/ Euro at the forefront of NS. Walk me through how we end up at the forefront of NS. "​


QUESTION SEVEN(a) - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Both candidates are competent in FA, but neither is exceptional in this area. Oga had a strange moment in which he claimed that his experience as MoFA in Canada "a few years back" was relevant to being up-to-date with the international stage now. While in some regions that may be true, it seemed out of place here. Otherwise, this section was largely a bunch of back-and-forth arguing that didn't make any real progress or highlight any real differences between the candidates." (6/10)


Sopo: "Unlike Interior, OO wants to build on FA, not "fix" it, which is a good call. Nonetheless, not much here, perhaps indicative of his lack of experience in the area. Kraken asked him to elaborate on his FA experience, perhaps in an attempt to illustrate that "old" does not mean "experienced." OO rebuffed the questions sufficiently, though, and attempted to throw it back on Kraken before Anumia cut off the argument." (6/10)


Malashaan: "Both candidates did a reasonable job of demonstrating a general competence with foreign affairs, but neither provided any remarkable new ideas or identified any spectacular previous achievements." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "Like Kraken, there was mostly a lot of summarizing and fluff at the outset. He handled Kraken's barrage of questions well, but didn't really expand much on any of his individual points. A very scattershot set of responses, but he was the better 'debater' in this section of the debate." (6/10)



QUESTION SEVEN(a) - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Both candidates are competent in FA, but neither is exceptional in this area. Kraken does have the advantage here, being the incumbent, as his mention of the TSP festival, with Kringalia was notable from an FA perspective. Otherwise, this section was largely a bunch of back-and-forth arguing that didn't make any real progress or highlight any real differences between the candidates." (7/10)


Sopo: "Kraken has overseen a successful FA Ministry headed by Anumia and is quick to point out the notable happenings from this term, WALL and the state visit. He then goes on to ask OO about his FA experience, which is relevant, as OO has never been President or held a high-up post in FA in Europeia. However, Kraken was not very experienced himself until recently. I think he's done a good job with FA and sticking with continuity is not a bad choice." (6/10)


Malashaan: "Both candidates did a reasonable job of demonstrating a general competence with foreign affairs, but neither provided any remarkable new ideas or identified any spectacular previous achievements." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken again summarizes bits of his platform here, which are pretty insubstantial and/or generic for the most part. More interestingly, calling out Ogastein's FA experience was a strange move, to say the least, and I can't figure out what purpose it was supposed to accomplish other than to allow Ogastein to point out Kraken's wholesale reliance on Anumia when he (Kraken) started out in FA and during his term as President (although OO never really took the opportunity to delve into this as much as I would have expected). This went in a weird direction quickly, but nothing really jumped out at me policy-wise." (5/10)


QUESTION SEVEN(a) FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 24/40 ******WINNER*******
Kraketopia: 24/40 *******WINNER******
 
QUESTION SEVEN(b): "Okay, let's go with that: what do each of you want to do with our presence on the NS forums?"​


QUESTION SEVEN(b) - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Instead of actually answering the question, both candidates instead elected to engage each other on the potential for a Europeian newspaper. While that could (and should) be posted to the NS forums, they bickered about the time it would take to debate and implement and how/whether it was "inappropriate" for Oga to mention it in his platform. They both would have been better served to elaborate on what they would hope to cover in said paper, and how they would work to get it off the ground quickly." (3/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein is more enthusiastic about the paper idea without providing more substance. While his outlook is more reassuring, it's still not a great answer." (5/10)


Malashaan: "Oga showed good enthusiasm but his attitude towards the paper seemed a little reckless. There is certainly potential for it to backfire, especially if the region isn't fully behind the idea, and Oga did not seem to view that as important. I don't believe merely encouraging ambassadors to post on the NS forum is a good approach - my experience is that if something isn't explicitly assigned as a job, it tends to slip between the cracks" (5/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein had the upper hand here because of Kraken's aforementioned fumble in his platform, and he squandered this momentum to mostly criticize dispatches, Kraken's level of trust in the citizenry, and everything else he could get his hands on. He would have been better served fleshing out his own timetable for the paper." (5/10)



QUESTION SEVEN(b) - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Instead of actually answering the question, both candidates instead elected to engage each other on the potential for a Europeian newspaper. While that could (and should) be posted to the NS forums, they bickered about the time it would take to debate and implement and how/whether it was "inappropriate" for Oga to mention it in his platform. They both would have been better served to elaborate on what they would hope to cover in said paper, and how they would work to get it off the ground quickly." (3/10)


Sopo: "Kraken brings up the international paper, attempting to counter accusations of sluggishness against his previous statement that it would not be doable in one term. He sounds reluctant, perhaps unwilling to take the initiative, only begrudging attempting it because OO highlighted the idea." (3/10)


Malashaan: "Kraken did a good job by acknowledging that we didn't have a strong enough forum presence and his suggestion of assigning someone to the task of raising our presence seems like a good one. It reflects well on Kraken that he advocates a measured approach to a regional newspaper to minimize the chances of such a project backfiring" (7/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken suggests forming a "team" to stay active in the NS forums, which I'm not especially interested in, but I can see the appeal to others. He acknowledges two past mistakes: his ignoring this particular issue in his last term, and his earlier stumble in his platform thread when he said the Europeian newspaper would probably take more than 70 days. He scrambles a bit to amend his earlier mistakes, but I'm left unconvinced. Kraken was highly disadvantaged at the outset of this question and he just couldn't recover his footing." (3/10)


QUESTION SEVEN(b) FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 18/40 *******WINNER*****
Kraketopia: 16/40
 
QUESTION EIGHT: "In a nutshell: what will you do -differently- to improve the Navy in any and all aspects, next term? No rhetoric about reaching out and such please."​


QUESTION EIGHT - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Neither really says much of note about the Navy. Oga is in a bit of a hard place in this area, given that he either criticizes his running mate or compliments his opponent. His repeated willingness to "move on" from this topic is noted - and understandable. His question to Kraken about whether or not we are "active and have more soldiers" is a bit confusing. Compared to what/when? The start of his term? Where he wanted to be? It seems like an attempt at an attack that went astray somewhere along the line." (5/10)


Sopo: "Neither of them have much interesting to say about the Navy, and both have good things to say about CSP, which he deserves." (5/10)


Malashaan: "Oga didn't have much to offer, but his criticism of the lack of progress on Kraken's main idea for the Navy in the last election was a successfully landed blow." (5/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein steers away from pure summary here, although he doesn't have much else to do except call out Kraken for the indefinite timetable for rolling out War Games. OO wants to keep the Navy on track, and also update the training materials...which would be welcome, imo. Pretty thin stuff overall though, but his critiques of the opponent were more successful than Kraken's here." (5/10)



QUESTION EIGHT - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Neither really says much of note about the Navy - although Kraken brings back his "war games" idea, which I still don't understand fully, even after 2 platforms worth of it. Kraken's points that Oga's critiques of the Navy (under Kraken's watch) seem somewhat inconsistent, given his running mate, are worth considering - although Oga is in a bit of a hard place in this area, given that he either criticizes his running mate or compliments his opponent." (6/10)


Sopo: "Neither of them have much interesting to say about the Navy, and both have good things to say about CSP, which he deserves." (5/10)


Malashaan: "Kraken's observation that it was strange for Oga to criticize this terms Navy when we chose to run with the current Grand Admiral as his running mate was pertinent, but he had little else to say" (5/10)


Modern Sin: "Another weak showing here, as Kraken merely acknowledges the Navy's well-known growth this term, and advocates for the War Games idea introduced in his first campaign. Kraken says his projection for starting these Games is "right on target" rings false, since in his original platform he basically just wrote a blank check for starting them at some indefinite term in the future." (3/10)


QUESTION EIGHT FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 20/40 *****WINNER*****
Kraketopia: 19/40
 
QUESTION NINE: "Strangely enough I have zero private questions on the Ministry of Foreign Cultivation. Yet. No doubt some are about to appear as I post this, but here's one of mine: I want each candidate to concisely establish what they believe are the current problems with the Ministry, and then their proposed solutions. And then you two can argue again. ;) "​


QUESTION NINE - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Oga has a stronger showing in this area - and he knows it. His involvement with the FC as of late puts him in an experienced role, and he's able to much more effectively pinpoint the weakpoints in this ministry. His point about publicizing our efforts is well made; however, his falling back on a poll that a minority of Europeians want the GAP scrapped seems misplaced since he's not even arguing to have the GAP scrapped at this point. Regardless, FC has been a weak point in Kraken's presidency (and Anumia's in the terms prior), and Oga makes that point clear. Oga should have better capitalized by making his own plan clear rather than repeatedly beating home the shortcomings of Kraken here." (7/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein has stuck to his guns in regards to 0 expansion of the GAP, which I think he will regret if elected. While I think growth is necessary, he has the upper hand because of the GAP's very poor perception amongst Europeians, especially following Lethen's outburst. OO really nails Kraken on the GAP, but fails to really develop his own plan, outside handbooks and "fundamentals." Somewhat of a missed opportunity" (6/10)


Malashaan: "Oga's passion to make the GAP something to be proud of is tangible, but he clings too much to small issues. He mentions the handbooks repeatedly, despite the fact there has been significant discussion about whether handbooks are even worthwhile. The fact he sticks to his guns regarding not expanding is unfortunate, because the GAP is very much a project with good economics of scale. However, he did a good job of highlighting the slow pace of progress and the public's frustration with it." (7/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein comes back in a big way here. Although he devotes the middle of this portion to keeping Kraken on the defensive, he includes some actual substance in the beginning and end, citing better communication between FC workers as well as greater publicity for GAP progress. Both sides of his argument work well for -this- GAP detractor, and actually get me slightly interested in FC's inner workings for a change." (8/10)



QUESTION NINE - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Kraken's best point here is that he would seek to expand the GAP, while Oga isn't looking to do that. While it's possible that he could turn the GAP around, that's easier said than done since he had an entire term to accomplish that. (3+ terms if you count all of the terms that FC has actually been in effect.) Otherwise, Kraken was largely on the defensive here, and it showed." (4/10)


Sopo: "Kraken cannot win where the GAP is concerned. OO really hammers him, forcing him to largely take responsibility for this term's failures. While Kraken plans to expand the GAP, he isn't exactly credible in this regard. He does his best to dodge OO's attacks and recovers slightly at the end, but this is his clear weakness." (3/10)


Malashaan: "In my view, Kraken had the stronger view for how the GAP should develop in the coming team, but he struggled to make his case in view of Oga's criticism of the slow pace of progress in the last term and Kraken's perceived lack of involvement." (6/10)


Modern Sin: "Kraken readily acknowledges the various criticisms made over his handling of the GAP, which continues to show his flexibility and willingness to patch the leaky parts of his ship (to use his opponent's metaphor). Unfortunately, he can't really come back on OO's attacks effectively enough, though he rightly points out a few of the more suspect claims made by OO. Again, he was on the ropes from beginning to end." (4/10)


QUESTION NINE FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 28 / 40 *****WINNER*****
Kraketopia: 17 / 40
 
QUESTION TEN: "If you could revive any Europeian no longer with us to serve in your Cabinet, who would it be and why? And, as a follow-up, how could you incorporate the virtues you admire in that person to your governing?"​


QUESTION TEN - Ogastein's Response

Mousebumples: "Given my own personal affinity for Vinage (and my general unfamiliarity with Asianatic), I'm intentionally not looking at the specific person each candidate chose, but rather what characteristics they both decided to emphasize within their choice. However, even there, both candidates covered largely the same ground and picked two popular historical figures within Europeia who would both be more than welcome to return to Europeia at any time. *hint hint* (in case they're lurking :wink: )" (9/10)


Sopo: "Ogastein chose Asianatic when I was fully expecting him to choose Swak, so props for originality. As he describes her, she really is OO's "spirit Europeian," so to speak, what he aspires to exemplify. A solid, unexpected choice." (10/10)


Malashaan: "Asianatic was an unexpected but solid choice. She is clearly an influential figure from our past and would be a great addition to any cabinet." (9/10)


Modern Sin: "Ogastein flexes his Europeia-veteran muscles here perhaps a bit too obviously, but like Kraken he picks a solid in the pocket Hall of Famer. It's always good to remind people how great we had it when Aurora was around." (8/10)



QUESTION TEN - Kraketopia's Response

Mousebumples: "Given my own personal affinity for Vinage (and my general unfamiliarity with Asianatic), I'm intentionally not looking at the specific person each candidate chose, but rather what characteristics they both decided to emphasize within their choice. However, even there, both candidates covered largely the same ground and picked two popular historical figures within Europeia who would both be more than welcome to return to Europeia at any time. *hint hint* (in case they're lurking :wink: )" (9/10)


Sopo: "Kraken chooses Vinage, a great choice for a Europeian of Kraken's generation. He's at a disadvantage here simply because he is familiar with fewer retired great Europeians, but he succeeds in answering the question well, pulling on Vinage's strengths. I give him leeway since he's newer." (10/10)


Malashaan: "You can't really go wrong with Vinage, although it may have been too obvious. Kraken did a good job of showing his appreciation for Euro history despite being relatively new to the region by picking a popular and successful predecessor." (9/10)


Modern Sin: "A lighter question to round off this intense, lengthy debate, both candidates decompress and open up a little here. Kraken is disadvantaged since he hasn't been around long enough to know most of the famous long-gone Europeians. His answer was puffy as hell, but for a question like this, that's okay. Everyone loves Vinage." (8/10)


QUESTION TEN FINAL SCORES:

Ogastein: 36 / 40 ******WINNER******
Kraketopia: 36/ 40 ******WINNER*****
 
Foreign Policy Portion of Debate Totals:

Ogastein: 90 / 160 = 56% of total points
Kraketopia: 76 / 160 = 48% of total points

*Question 10, the fun question, is not included in these totals, but is included in the Grand Total

HEM: The Foreign Policy portion of the debate is really where Ogastein came back to shine. The discussions in this section tended to be broken into larger discussions, rather than more separate questions. Indeed, for our own sanity we had to break question seven up into two differing parts.

The important thing to look at here, then, is the percent of total points each candidate got in each respective section of the debate. Kraketopia beat Ogastein by roughly 10% in the domestic policy portion, and Ogastein beat Kraketopia by 8% in the foreign policy section. They clearly have different strengths. Just like in the previous section, there are only a few instances in which Ogastein "ran away with the show" and many more instances of him managing to just "edge out" Kraketopia.

The GAP is a ball and chain around the ankle of the President, and it showed. Incumbency gave to Kraketopia a few times in the Domestic Policy section, but it certainly took from him here. That being said, both candidates began to putter out toward the end (probably due to fatigue, we had fatigue just from reading the thing), and the debate was far from the highest quality (though it certainly overshadowed many other debates ENN has graded).
 
Presidential Debate Grand Totals

By quantity of points earned

Ogastein: 246 / 400 = 62% of total points earned
Kraketopia: 258 / 400 ********WINNER*****= 65% of total points earned

By average percent of points won per section:

Ogastein: 50% (domestic) + 56% (foreign) / 2 = 53%
Kraketopia: 61% (domestic) + 48% (foreign) / 2 = 54.5% ****WINNER****

Concluding Analysis

Mousebumples: "At their core, the two candidates have similar overarching goals for Europeia. The difference is in the details, and while the debate did help shine a light on a few of those ... FEW is the key word there. I think Oga has things to offer to Europeia from a leadership perspective; however, I feel that he is too newly returned and largely unfamiliar with a lot of how things are currently run to really be an effective leader at this time. This debate helped to highlight a few of those shortcomings, notably in the interior arena. As such, I feel Kraken won this debate, despite his weakness being exposed in FC."

Sopo: "If there was a winner, I think Ogastein narrowly edged out Kraken, simply by being more aggressive and more interesting. The entire debate had ups and downs (more downs, in my opinion), but Kraken was on the defensive more often, and, although OO had more flubs and missed opportunities, he also took more swings. Not a great reflection on either one, but an ever-so-slight Ogastein victory, if you can call it that."

Malashaan: "Overall I think Kraken did better. His primary weakness was areas he has not meet expectations last term, and he acknowledged his failures well for the most part, as well as providing a number of concrete ideas to improve these areas. In contrast, where they're wasn't an easy attack on Kraken's record, Oga came across as a little out of touch with modern Europeian government"

ModernSin: "Unless we're just gonna tally up points, I don't know that there was a clear frontrunner for the whole thing. There was a lot of give and take on both sides, and both candidates underperformed a good bit."

HEM: "At the end of the day, this was a very close debate. Not because it was super good, but not because it was super bad. We have two solid candidates engaging in a reasonably articulate exchange of ideas for (what has to be a record) three hour debate.

There are a few caveats to this debate, which have already been mentioned. While the numbers suggest that Kraketopia edged out Ogastein, more questions in the Foreign Policy section may have netted more points for Ogastein, tying the statistically value. Also, we can only guess how many points Ogastein lost by losing Zenny on the panel, which then subsequently became a tiny bit unbalanced. The points give us a winner, but the numbers are very misleading, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

At the end of the day, this debate will only have an impact depending on what issues the voters think are important. If voters are considering Foreign Affairs and the GAP when voting, they may vote for Ogastein because of the debate. If they are considering Media and Communications, they might vote for Kraketopia because of this debate.

Not bad, not great, but this debate will surely be a great tool to help you make up your mind to vote.

Thank you Europeia, and good night"

===== Public Comment Welcome Below This Post =====​
 
I'm going to go ahead and forgo barking too much about how Mouse's commentary was so slanted it shouldn't have been allowed to be published. Maybe we can find more panelists who aren't so rabidly in support of one candidate in the future.

I think 1-10 is way too large a field and is subject to too much interpretation. On a scale of 1-10, everyone's 7 is going to be different. On a scale of 1-5, Most people's 4 is going to be consistent.
 
Common-Sense Politics said:
I'm going to go ahead and forgo barking too much about how Mouse's commentary was so slanted it shouldn't have been allowed to be published. Maybe we can find more panelists who aren't so rabidly in support of one candidate in the future.

I think 1-10 is way too large a field and is subject to too much interpretation. On a scale of 1-10, everyone's 7 is going to be different. On a scale of 1-5, Most people's 4 is going to be consistent.
Click to expand...
You're going to have to point out to me how she was consistently outside the mainstream. Most panelists had moments outside the consensus (one way or another) but much of the scoring came in identical, or at least very close.
 
HEM said:
Common-Sense Politics said:
I'm going to go ahead and forgo barking too much about how Mouse's commentary was so slanted it shouldn't have been allowed to be published. Maybe we can find more panelists who aren't so rabidly in support of one candidate in the future.

I think 1-10 is way too large a field and is subject to too much interpretation. On a scale of 1-10, everyone's 7 is going to be different. On a scale of 1-5, Most people's 4 is going to be consistent.
Click to expand...
You're going to have to point out to me how she was consistently outside the mainstream. Most panelists had moments outside the consensus (one way or another) but much of the scoring came in identical, or at least very close.
Click to expand...
If you think there's a chance I'm rereading this monstrosity, you're out of your mind. :p That's the impression I got.
 
Very interesting read. I wouldn't put too much stock in a few citizen's views and really declare a winner or not. I do agree with the fact that as President Krake has an advantage on internal issues while as a dedicated architect, Ogastein has an advantage on FA. But, I'd also look to Ogastein's strong leadership in the CA as a reason more citizens like Marnip, Imperium, Calvin, etc are getting involved in the political process.
 
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