[truthguy]

Reagan cleaned Buckley's clock in the Panama Canal debate circa 1977. It helped that Reagan was right and Buckley was wrong.

Absolute rubbish. I watched that debate and to me Buckley's team won (George Will was Buckley's partner) that debate. You could have interpreted it as a Reagan win but nobody could have believed that Reagan cleaned Buckley's clock.

And BTW, it was Buckley's policy that was adopted. We did turn the Canal over to Panama (with provisions) and there has been no negative ramifications, at least so far (despite the Manuel Noriega mess). So Reagan's predictions did not in fact come true. Now I'm a Reagan fan and voted for him twice, but in this case it was Buckley who was right.

[Dr. Sivana]

Absolute rubbish. I watched that debate and to me Buckley's team won (George Will was Buckley's partner) that debate. You could have interpreted it as a Reagan win but nobody could have believed that Reagan cleaned Buckley's clock.

You must have seen a different debate. The one I saw was a special Firing Line edition, and a one on one, no George Will. Perhaps cleaning his clock was a little over the top, but that was because I was taking into consideration Buckley's ordinary prowess ... againstthe point spread, if you will. The fact that the the Buckley side prevailed under Jimmy Carter (and Ford) is a negative indicator for most Freepers. Had it not been for that one issue, Reagan might not have won North Carolina in '76, nor cleaned up in Texas, and '80 would have been a tougher climb than it was.

For the record, I am an experienced parliamentary debater and judge, and served on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Debating Society and as Secretary.

In fact, many years ago, my team beat Chris Coons' team, knocking them out of the finals.