Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy debate the finer points.
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With Donald Trump absent again, Republican presidential hopefuls took potshots at each other but agreed that Bidenomics isn’t cutting it.
Up for debate?
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Long treated as a sign of anxiety or a delaying tactic, ‘filled pauses’ are a linguistic trick to signal that what you are about to say might be complicated.
Whataboutism is often deployed when an argument is seen as a battle to be won and not a debate.
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As strategies go, whataboutism is more attack than debate. Using it isn’t about reasoned argument but winning a fight, no matter the cost to truth.
Chinese outlets that once relayed cautious optimism over Donald Trump’s deal-making abilities now express exasperation over his chaotic style.
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In 2016, America’s adversaries seemed to cheer electoral chaos and a withering faith in democracy. Now they seem to be hoping democracy can topple a leader they’ve grown loathe to deal with.
When a debate becomes just a fight.
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Functional political debates, like healthy democracies, require participants who respect the process and follow mutually agreed-upon rules.
Voters could know more about how each of these men think.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Three new approaches in the field of competitive academic debate offer ideas that could help presidential debates serve both their public purposes.
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders shake hands before the debate on Jan. 14.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
At the Jan. 14 debate, held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, six candidates clashed on jobs, Iran and more.
Host Jack Barry, middle, is flanked by contestants on ‘21,’ a 1950s TV game show.
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The only satisfactory debate arrangement everyone agreed to nearly 60 years ago largely remains in place today – the game show format.
Ten Democratic presidential candidates took the stage in Atlanta on Nov. 20.
AP Photo/John Bazemore
Learn more about the economic issues that were debated by the Democratic presidential candidates in Atlanta on Nov. 20.
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When ideas are presented as topics to be debated, rather than as facts to be learnt, students and democracy benefit.
Left to right: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau pose before the start of the French-language leaders’ debate in Montreal in September 2015.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
The creation of a new debate commission in Canada should ensure televised showdowns between party leaders amid federal election campaigns are transparent and a boon to democracy.
Lessons in civil discourse can start in the classroom.
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A former middle school teacher offers a series of tips on how educators can teach young people to engage in more civil discourse.
A woman enters the media workspace at the University of Las Vegas, site of the last 2016 U.S. presidential debate.
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Do you feel as if the moderators keep asking the same questions of the presidential candidates? Our panel has some fresh ideas.
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the October 9 presidential town hall debate.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
An expert in political rhetoric singles out Trump’s repeated use of reification – the tendency to treat people as things – and the role it’s played in his tortured response to the leaked tape.
Trump speaks at the town-hall style debate.
REUTERS/Jim Young
Scholars from the Washington University in St. Louis react to the second presidential debate.
Kaine (L) and Pence, Oct. 4, 2016.
REUTERS/Andrew Gombert/Pool
One in five vice presidents becomes president. So we had scholars watching Tuesday night. Here’s what they heard.
The roll-out has been a bit clunky, but there’s potential.
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Live events like sports seemed immune to streaming services’ assault on traditional broadcast TV. Now that might change.
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama trade barbs during the 2012 presidential race.
Mike Segar/Reuters
Policy nuances often fail to stick in the minds of debate viewers. It’s all about delivering the most memorable moment.
Protesters wearing masks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump march in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dominick Reuter/Reuters
From Alfonso the Wise’s bawdy songs of slander to Ronald Reagan’s sunny smile, politics and humor have gone hand-in-hand for centuries. But no one seems to be laughing anymore.
Ethical coverage of Trump shouldn’t be a joke.
REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl
Just ask Megyn Kelly of Fox News. Covering the Trump campaign is no picnic. But journalists have a duty to do more than write clickbait stories on the billionaire candidate.