Will there be a presidential debate this campaign season? Odds are there will not. The Biden campaign seems to be leery of having their candidate unscripted and unmanaged on a public stage and looking for a way out.

Thomas Friedman tries to give Biden that way out, suggesting Biden only debate Trump on two conditions - if Trump releases his tax returns before the debate and if Trump agrees to a "non-partisan" panel of fact checkers doing live checks during the debate. His intent is not to create a "fair" debate, but to create conditions under which Trump will withdraw from the debate, not Biden.

There are a few issues with Friedman's suggestions.

• The release of Trump's tax returns is itself a point of debate. Biden is free to bring up the lack of tax returns in a debate. And Trump is free to bring up the fact that Biden, himself, has not been forthcoming with his own records. Biden's Senate records are sealed for years to come at the University of Delaware, even the ones that could be released with no harm to national security. The subject of Hunter Biden's income from Ukrainian sources and the timing thereof (his father at that time being VP and in charge of US relations with and aid to Ukraine) is also viable topic for any debate; as are the incomes and jobs of Trump's progeny. In addition, Biden's medical records, including the results of the cognitive tests Biden says he has taken repeatedly, have not been released.
• The truthfulness of either candidate's claims can be broached by the other party in the debate as well. If Trump lies, Biden can call him on it; likewise Trump with Biden lies. Friedman's underlying claim that Trump will bury Biden with half-truths in the debate is partisan rancor and not an attempt to create an honest debate. Trump is the target of Friedman's machinations, not dishonesty.
• Will this "non-partisan" panel of fact checkers also check the questions? After all, the way a question is asked can preclude an honest answer or use up a candidate's time in correcting the assumptions underlying the question.
• Comments by the debate host can also have an effect on the outcome. Finding a disinterested and neutral host for these debates has proven problematic.
• Will this panel limit itself to facts that can be checked? For example, the claim that FDR saved the country from the Great Depression is provably wrong, but accepted as fact by progressives and big government activists. The claim that Obama saved us from the Great Recession or that Bush caused the 2008 mortgage meltdown are factually incorrect, but accepted as fact by partisan Democrats. Remember Candy Crowley's blatantly-partisan opener to Romney, "I do attribute much of America’s economic and international problems to the failings and missteps of the Bush administration. I fear the return to the policies of those years should you win this election."
• What happens when the panel members disagree?
• What sources will the panel use to check facts?
• Will both parties have a say in the make-up of this panel?
• Most news channels will do a fact check after the debate, so a live panel is little more than an attempt to limit any focus on the candidate's performance. Like a TV timeout in sports, it will slow down the live action and distract from the performance on the field.
• Any meeting with foreign heads of state will not include a fact check panel. Debates are a chance to watch candidates think on their feet, to watch them react to live distractions, to judge the mental acuity of a candidate.

The voters can make up their minds about the candidates' claims and honesty during the debate. They can use each candidate's debate performance to make up their minds about a candidate's fitness for office. And that is what seems to concern the Biden campaign and the Democratic Party.

Keep an eye on this account before it gets taken down:

https://twitter.com/exposing_white

Was he the racist or his clientele?

Jeffrey Epstein didn’t recruit underage black girls.

https://twitter.com/dpinsen/status/1289059394953588737

Video proof that physics is a harsh mistress.

https://twitter.com/JoshLekach/status/1288597538635800581

Hey, it's August and what does this month in the year of hell brings to the pyre?

https://twitter.com/scott_kerr/status/1289614153452118016

> Conan the Grammarian at August 3, 2020 6:53 AM

Longform* Coney is the best Coney.

*Relative to typically-terse blog-comment narrative scale. The guy could write a book if he wanted, but IJS the extra effort for a well-sustained blog comment is appreciated.