don't presidents have to answer questions

[Johonny]

they aren't prepared for? Indeed most presidents enter the office to find the role they just won is completely different than the role they campaigned for. Let's take say the last president. Bush was good at the crap he was prepared to do. He was going to let his underlings push the ultra conservative agenda. It was easy. Until things happen that he wasn't prepared to do. The economy didn't work. The great surplus evaporated over night. It didn't matter the tax cuts remained, no matter what. A major terrorist attack happened, but he was already for an Iraq war so he did that instead. When the war slowly spun out of control, he simply watched it and repeated the same talking points for years. A hurricane happened. He did nothing before, during and after it. Disaster relief wasn't on the agenda. Months after it was clear the American public wasn't interested in his social security plan tied to the stock market, Bush kept hammering on it. Bush simply kept sailing through with his prepared presidency. He simply could never respond to a crisis. His only solutions to them were old prepared bad republican ideas that have floated around for decades (centuries for some). The great presidents not only were good at doing what they were prepared to do, but great at the true role of the presidency responding to what can't be prepared for.

So when you show up to a debate and one candidate can't think on their feet and answer the questions put to them. That's a bad, bad thing. The presidency is about being able to answer questions you didn't get to memorize before hand.