Basically four issues have been seriously discussed by the candidates during this campaign. To illustrate this point, I counted 38 questions during the three presidential debates. Here is my breakdown of the topics.

Foreign policy has been limited to six countries. The obligatory homage to Israel, Russia and the stretch of South Central Asia between Iraq and Pakistan. Nine of the ten foreign policy questions involved these six.

Three questions directly addressed health care. Two questions were asked about energy. In addition the candidates found countless opportunities to discuss energy policy when talking about the economy and foreign policy. These issues also were prominent in the question about priorities from the second debate.

The dominant Issue during these debates has, of course, been the economic crisis. The candidates have endlessly repeated their economic proposals. The three closely linked issues of taxes, spending and the bailout have been the subject of twelve of the thirty eight-questions.

Six of the questions are what I classify as puffery, serving simply as opportunities for the candidates to recite portions of the stump speeches. While some of these questions have sparked interesting exchanges such as the discussion about campaign attack from the third debate, they do not shed any insight into the major issues of the day.

That left just four substantive questions about all other issues. It is understandable for an election to center around a few key issues. These issues dominate the public discourse for good reason. If the next president can find a solution for just one of these challenges he will be deemed a success.

But it is deeply disturbing how narrow the discussion has become. Both candidates have spent months laying out detailed plans to address energy, health care and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have spent the last month making clear how they would approach the economic crises. But these are not the only challenges facing America today.

The debates are the only opportunity where we can assess the two candidates side by side. By allowing them to stick comfortably to their well rehearsed scripts, we didn't get to see how they truly think about issues. As Sarah Palin has proven, anyone person can memorize the talking points on a given issue if they know what to expect in advanced.

Collectively the three debates failed to raise even a single unexpected issue. And yet so many important challenges are waiting just below the surface. While I can not predict the future, I am certain that some crises that no one is talking about today will dominate much of the next presidents attention. It is unfortunate that the moderators allowed the debates to pass without forcing the candidates to address a single surprising issue.