Here's the debate format I want to see:

[KnaveRupe]

Give each candidate a clock with 10:00 on it.

Give each candidate a button on their podium.

When they want to speak, they press the button to turn on their mic, and while it is on, their clock is counting down.

Only one candidate's mic can be on at a time, and as soon as the current speaker lets off his or her button, a light comes on on each of the other candidates' podiums letting them know that the mic is up for grabs.

Once their timer is done, they are, for all intents and purposes, out of the debate.

Then, you have the moderator throw generic questions out to the panel, and let everyone who wants to say something spend as much time as they want saying whatever they want. If they want to press another candidate, or respond to an attack, or whatever, they can spend their valuable time doing so. But nobody gets more than 10 minutes of microphone time total, so the moderator can just let them talk without cutting them off.

THAT'S a debate I'd watch. And it would only last 80 minutes, plus whatever time the moderator talked.

So who do I gotta talk to to get this format approved?

[defendandprotect]

1. We should leave them alone to ask . . .

their own questions of one another -- to challenge one another --
you have to make sure that they don't make deals, however, to powerpuff one another.

You'd tell them to address the issues that they think are important and that they'd face in the coming years --

You'd have to have someone then of intelligence to go back over the stuff and make sure that important topics were addressed --

Mainly, we need to get the debates out of corporate hands --
back into the hands of the League of Women Voters, who -- btw -- won't verify any election where computers are used for votes/counting.