I did not watch the Presidential Debate, so my comments are based on the news reports immediately following the debates.
From what I gather from the news coverage the former president lied about everything, deflected and slandered while the current president had an off day due to whatever was causing his off performance.
Then to top it off the moderators did not bother to do real-time fact-checking or call the former president on his lies, deflections, and slanders.
So the debate would have been like watching an Olympic sport where a Russian athlete cheated with performance-enhancing drugs and the officials then did not test for doping and did not disqualify the cheating athlete.
In the future, if we want our debates to be real and not turned into a mockery, then perhaps we need real-time fact checks and moderators not fearful of calling out the lies and disqualifying the dishonorable, untrustworthy liar.
I would not call lies, innuendos, or omissions, a valid debate, let alone a presidential one (which one would assume would have higher standards and a code of conduct).
I would call it a dirty pool; and deliberate submarining of the debate process.
And I would call the pathological liar playing the dirty pool unworthy, dishonest, disreputable, and completely unprofessional and unpresidential.
P.s.
Never have a gentleman's duel with someone who is not a gentleman.
And never have it with the seconds missing from the process.
