[needmorePaine]

Debates are so overrated. Usually the candidate who "outdebates" the other candidate is hailed by the MSM as the victor but what the people at home are looking for are intangibles, such as "can I picture this person as my president".

I also think debates are overrated. They are a relic of a bygone era. Maybe they mattered in the Lincoln-Douglas era or the Kennedy-Nixon era. They really don't matter as much now. Candidates can reach the people with their message in an instant.

[Ancesthntr]

For at least the last several election cycles, the so-called debates have been so tightly scripted as to virtually remove the concept of an actual debate from the event. Neither side wishes to take too much of a risk, so all kinds of rules are put into place to avoid truly stunning defeats. Of course, that does not prevent somebody from really screwing up badly, but the intent is to avoid something like that. This is contrary to the free-for-all nature of the true debates that our politicians engaged in in the 1800s and early 1900s.

[SamAdams76]

Plus people forget about debates pretty quickly. Already Tuesday night's debate is sliding into the memory hole for most people. I'm a political junkie and the only things I remember about the primary debates was Meghan Kelly's obnoxious questioning of Trump and Jebbie Bush up on his tippy toes. Also, I remember Ted Cruz saying something about "New York values" that didn't really help him much.

Certain things stick in your mind about debates over the long term, usually blunders like George Bush checking his watch or Gerard Ford seeming to not realize that Eastern Europe was under Soviet control. Or one liners like "There you go again" and "Where's the beef."

But given a couple more weeks, most people are going to be hard-pressed to remember much about Tuesday's debate. No major mistakes were made and no memorable one-liners were delivered.