Uh, Walt. That was a different race two years later. Try again.
The debates set the stage. Lincoln was nobody before the debates. He "won" the debates in a much more tangible sense than your endorsement of Douglas' prowess shows.
What this particular weird seque shows is your perverse objection to -anything- Lincoln accomplished. You are saying a lot more about yourself than you are him.
Walt
Don't change the subject, Walt. You asserted that Lincoln won some unknown popular vote that seems to have not occurred. Whether the debates helped Lincoln gain national prominence is not the matter of contention here. I have asked you repeatedly to state your case on how The Lincoln won the popular vote when he was not even a candidate to be voted on by the people at large.
At the very least you should be able to provide evidence for your claim, such as the vote totals showing how much The Lincoln "won" by. Yet you do not and cannot because there are no such totals - he wasn't on the ballot. Finding that to be the case, it now seems you have drifted into evasion territory by trying to change the subject to the prominence The Lincoln gained from those debates. Your desparation could not be more obvious.