How do you run a debate when someone lies nonstop?
A special debate preview edition
Welcome to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. This edition, we’re keeping it short and sweet, bringing you our special episode about the long, weird history of political debates.
This is, of course, tied to tonight’s very weird debate between President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump.
In it, we discuss things like:
Why don’t we do seven-hour debates like Lincoln and Douglas did?
Why did we once go 16 years without a Presidential debate?
Is it ever a good idea to hand the microphone to a member of the audience?
What does a moderator do when they try to fact-check someone who is lying non-stop?
A lot has been made about the back-and-forth over the rules for tonight’s debate. But as we talked about, that’s also nothing new. Debate formats are ultimately arbitrary and several past candidates have gotten tweaks made that have helped them tremendously.
Hopefully this gives you some things to think about going into tonight. What’s more, you can watch this conversation, as we’ve posted full video on our new Youtube page.
You can also, of course, listen to audio of this in our good old podcast feed. We split it into two parts.
Okay, it’s a few hours until the debate, let us know in the comments what you’ll be looking for, and if you have any big ideas about how to actually make these things productive.
We’ll be back next week with a full newsletter.
-Jody-
Oh, one more thing, if you’re in NYC — I have a live show tonight at Caveat on the LES. It’s at 7pm, Avery Trufelman will be there, and I promise to wrap up in time to for you to scurry home and watch Trump-Biden. I also promise it will be more fun than the debate.
Come on out, you can snag tickets at the door!
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