The “debate” between Joe Biden’s selection for vice-president, Senator Kamala Harris, and Trump’s VP Mike Pence was normal by 21st Century televised debate standards. By that I mean that the level of shouting, screaming, interrupting, and abuse was sufficiently low that it was actually possible to hear much of what the candidates were saying, and…
What did we learn? Not very much. Undecided and third-party voters — and those planning not to vote — certainly won’t have much clarity after last night’s “debate.” It was more of a rock fight. Just a reminder: these Rationalist Papers posts are for the group I call the deciders: conservative, moderate, undecided, and third-party voters considering…
Moderator: Welcome to the first Insight Debate of 2017. We’ll be hearing from two distinguished purveyors of knowledge, Words and Numbers. I’m Professor Insight, your moderator. Let’s begin. On my left, I’d like to introduce Words. Since the dawn of communication — and certainly since the dawn of written communication over 5000 years ago — words have…
More than half of last night’s debate was about character. It feels like this whole campaign has been about character. It’s time to stop wallowing in that and face the country’s real problems, the problems nobody talks about, which go way beyond who’s running and what they did 10 and 20 years ago. In any campaign, here’s what…
I try to be balanced. But I admit that I am biased in favor of candidates who are coherent. By the end of last night’s debate, there was only one of those left on the stage. Donald Trump sounded like a conspiracy nut on speed. Because I analyze writing, I won’t talk about who “looked presidential.”…
The Donald Trump campaign’s 271-word statement about skipping the next debate is short, clear, and free of jargon. But it could have been much shorter, only six words: “I am afraid of Megyn Kelly.” I believe his strategic calculation was that this debate would not help him — people already know who he is — but that tangling again…
Good evening, everyone. I’m Josh Bernoff, your moderator for the PBS/WOBS presidential debate, here in Washington, DC. This is a historic debate in a brand-new format, which I’ll now describe. For the first time, we’ve brought together the leading candidates from both parties in one debate. There are no time limits on your answers. However, I and…
The Republican National Committee suspended its relationship with NBC News, alleging bias and disrespect in the recent debate on CNBC. My analysis shows that only 54% of the questions were about legitimate policy issues. So the RNC has a point. Debates featuring a scrum of ten people are a poor way to judge candidates; they mostly show the candidates’…
When it comes to finding presidential nominees, we’re doing it wrong. Here’s what enables you to succeed — that is, to survive — as a presidential nominee in the early going: Ability to create striking soundbites in debates and other forums with no regard for whether they are factually inaccurate. Quick wit in criticizing other people…