Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Think Tanks Trying to Influence Final Presidential Debate

Numerous think tanks have been working closely with presidential candidates offering policy papers, advice, and teams of scholars to quickly pen reports and opinions on the hottest topics of the day.

Think tanks have also been trying to get debate moderators to ask certain questions.  Here is the latest example from Politico:
Several think tanks have posted foreign policy and national security-related questions for the third presidential debate, including the Brookings Institution and the Center for a New American Security. Among the familiar themes: Military force in Syria (a topic the Bipartisan Policy Center also highlighted), Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Baltics and the terrorism fight.

Hundreds of think tankers are directly and indirectly advising both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and just like past debates, we anticipate a number of think tanks will be doing real-time fact-checking for this debate as well.

Here is a look at what some specific think tanks are doing for tonight's festivities:
  • Scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) are live on Facebook discussing foreign policy and tonight's debate.
  • Brookings scholars are on the ground in Las Vegas where the debate is taking place. 
  • Cato Institute's list of scholars live-tweeting the debate.
  • American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is asking people to follow its Twitter feed for scholar reaction.

This is how think tankers are really preparing for tonight's debate.