Hugh Hewitt often points out that the original Lincoln Douglas debates of a century and a half ago really allowed the candidates to go at it.  One person spoke for an hour, his opponent would speak for ninety minutes and the first speaker would return for a thirty minute rebuttal.  This point is important for two reasons:  They brought Lincoln into prominence while losing him the congressional race, and they could never happen today.

Nevertheless, that does not mean we have to settle for the joint press conferences we have today.  The debates today tell us more about the people running the debate than they do the candidates.  Don’t get me wrong.  We need to see how these candidates respond in a variety of situations, including non-traditional ones.  You never know when a candidate will visit with a foreign leader only to find oneself sitting across the table from a talking snowman.  Let’s just hope we have some campbell’s soup at hand.  The problem is we also need to find out about what makes the candidates think.  We don’t need to worry so much about $300 haircuts as what those haircuts are hiding.

So here are some ideas from a (former) speech coach about how debates should be run.

Of course, a debate is only a debate if it is one-on-one.  If you have more than two people running, you have multiple debates so that everyone gets to go up against everyone else.  The current format for Lincoln-Douglas debates being used nationally is intriguing:

6 minute affirmative constructive (opening speech)
7 minute negative constructive
4 minute affirmative rebuttal
6 minute negative rebuttal
3 minute affirmative rebuttal

The designations “affirmative” and “negative” would be irrelevant in presidential debates and are only presented here to indicate which one of the two candidates would speak.  Also, each constructive is followed by a cross-examination period wherein the person who has just spoken is asked questions about his speech by his opponent.

All together this format would take about 30 minutes.  The current debates usually last about 90 minutes.  That allows time for three of these Lincoln Douglas debates during one telecast.  I see two possibilities.  If there are two candidates debating (such as during the general election), have three debates, each one on a different issue.  These might range from the war against radical jihad, the economy, health care, education, and so forth.  The other possibility is that there are three candidates in the general election, and, in that case, it may be that we want each candidate to debate each of his opponents.  This would require 90 minutes and would magically fit into the usual telecast time.