After two snoozer debates with mostly empty rhetoric, it is pretty obvious the candidates don’t want to talk isses or facts.  So we should at least make this entertaining and raise the stakes.  My new dabate format proposal:

• The moderator is there to try and keep time commitments even.
• The questions are asked by one candidate to the other candidate.  The candidate has 2-3 minutes to respond.
• The candidate who asks the question is free to offer a rebuttal, but has only 10 total minutes available for rebuttal during the entire debate, requiring them to be brief, and/or choose their rebuttals carefully.

To make it really interesting, we could have something like Guitar Hero where when people either don’t answer the question, offer platitudes, or other nonsense their time starts ticking away faster and faster.  Okay, that wouldn’t work, but it’s a nice thought.