The Presidential Debate Format Stinks. We Should Run Crisis Simulations Instead.

Lee Drutman wrote for Vox about reformatting the presidential debates:

Consider what it takes to "win" a debate under the current format: Generally, the "winner" of the debate is the candidate who manages expectations best, the candidate who delivers the best zinger, the candidate who avoids any memorable or telling stumbles (like notably sighing), and/or the candidate whose surrogates do the most convincing job in the post-debate spin room. These are not the qualities that determine great presidents.

If we had a short election season like the rest of the civilized world, debates might be informative. But we've now spent a year and a half dissecting every position and personality quirk of our two candidates. What new information could a debate reveal? What can an exercise in spewing out sound bites and needling each other for 90 minutes possibly tell us that we don't already know?

Or think about it this way: If you were part of a board of directions, and you were down to two finalists for a CEO job, would you bring both finalists in at the same time and ask them rapid-fire questions in front of a live audience? What would that tell you about how they would actually run the company? Is there any company in the world that hires in this way?