Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

i was a debater for many years, taught debate and forensics, and can say this about the way we do these presidential debates: 1) there's no way to "win" them 2) at most you can mouth platitudes 3) people remember one-liners and weird facial tics/fashion gaffes and little else

moot court is a bland, boring format that favors fact memorizers with smooth-jazz radio host voices, like ted olson and ted cruz, but these roundtable debates favor goofballs who say wacky, meme-able shit. looking for "substance" here is a no-go

think about your own presentations. how well, esp. as you age, can you remember facts "off-book" or "off-powerpoint?" probably poorly. i'm good, v. good in fact, but nothing i say is as precise as if i were fact-checking it while i typed it. and so the debates fail here too