PLATFORM : One on One
The City Club has hosted debates using the League of Women Voters setup, the format with a panel of reporters and a moderator. It’s abundantly clear that the Lincoln-Douglas format is preferable, because it gives you a greater sense of who the candidates are and what it is they are about.
A Lincoln-Douglas-style debate is a debate in which there are opening and closing statements from the two candidates. After the opening, the two candidates are engaged in a debate without moderators and reporters. The candidates aren’t going to be upstaged by a panel of reporters or by a moderator who might be more famous. We’ve seen too much of that.
Let’s see the candidates handle themselves in this free-form style of debate. It’s terribly important because candidates would be free to ask each other questions. We don’t get candidates in many unguarded situations--situations that can be very revealing.
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