Correct me, please; tell me where I am wrong:

The presidential debates annoy me (fact, if trivial). Most annoying? Because there are rules but participants regularly break them, by interrupting, etc. (fact, not quite so trivial, and you may agree strongly). And the moderators try to maintain control, but they end up looking bad, too (pure opinion) — often even worse than the candidates, if mainly because voters expect to have a say in the candidates’ future, and thus want to side with one or more, while the moderators seem immune to any viewer control (conjecture).

Now, televised political debates cannot be real debates between actual, honest dialecticians because those political participants are preening and posing and engaging in propaganda and rhetoric (theory). In a society such as ours, the rhetoric is usually base rhetoric (can we stipulate this?). I have never participated in formal debate, and do not know the rules, though I certainly have seen formal debates (facts, such as they are) … so let’s just say I don’t know the rules well. That being said, the formal debates I have seen in Oxford style and in club style could not successfully be mimicked for American politicians (pure assertion, if based on some experience). So I suggest a style I consider novel, but may not be (you tell me).

1. The mics on the debaters are completely controlled by an electronic system. A debater will not be heard (because of dead mic) until he/she/zhe has buzzed in to respond and the debater who is speaking has relinquished open mic privilege by buzzing permission.
2. Each candidate has a set amount of total time. The clocks run while speaking, as in lightning chess.
3. Occasionally moderators could ask questions, but the debaters could mutually agree, on the fly, to ignore the moderators entirely and ask questions of each other. 
4. When a debater finishes and asks a question or makes a challenge or just a statement and then relinquishes mic by buzzing out, the other debater(s) have a few seconds to buzz in. At the end of that time, either the moderator assigns the next speaker for a response (upon which his/her/zher clock begins to tick down) or asks a question, to a specific person or for open bidding for a response.

Under this system, there would be little to no folderol regarding “time,” etc. It would be seamless behind the technology and protocols. No stern lectures from asshat moderators, etc. Each participant would be looking at the times of all debaters and deciding strategy, going long when it would be to good effect, and cutting short when “buying” time for later, especially the closing.

In a rigorous, hyper-strict version of the system, debaters would have complete control over how long their closing remarks would be. If they approach the end of their allotted time, they could wrap up early and make the most of it, perhaps uncomfortably early. It may or may not be a grand idea to be the last speaker with a long, ten-minute slot! It would depend on the participants.

So, do you think this could be managed? Would it be interesting to watch?

As for me, I think it would be superior to current televised political debates, and staged, pseudo-“townhall” events.

Am I nuts?

In any case, what I am proposing is not quite what I consider to be the ideal debate format, for philosophical participants (another confessional fact).

But face it, our pols are not Aristotles (indubitable).