How to Make Presidential Debates Serve Voters, Not Candidates0

• Politics
• March 19, 2020

Presidential debates are not debates at all. They provide candidates with opportunities to deliver their own pre-scripted messages, largely unchallenged. Ideally, presidential debate scholars agree, these events should help voters identify which candidate they agree with most on key issues, and, as other academic debate coaches put it, see how a candidate would “make decisions,