Speaking of debates ! When was the last time you sat down and watched one? The whole thing!

Never in my long life have I ever watched an entire debate. They are nothing but posturing platforms, launching pads for arguments and soapboxes for empty promises.

For 30 years my friends have congregated at my best friends house to watch the debates. We have never sat and watched the whole thing. We have it on. We talk about the relevant issues, but mostly it is just background noise. We watch them because we want to be current, but find all the BS annoying but a part of the show.

Funny that until your question I was not aware that we didn't watch the whole thing.

I think it was when Ross Perot ran and it was the vice-presidential candidates. And the only reason I made it all the way through is because it was more of a comedy skit than a debate.

I quit watching any part of the debates when I realized my commentary was including too many swear words.

I've watched the occasional political debate but they're quite different from the formal type of debate that is argued between intelligent, well-informed people.  (It is not necessary for politicians to be either intelligent or well-informed, and far too often they are not.)

I've watched the occasional religious debate on YouTube, but that may not count for this question.

But the debate I remember best, and enjoyed most, was broadcast on ABC Radio in the 1980s between a London-based epidemiologist (whose name I forget) and the leader of an American think tank, named Ivan Lorenz.

Lorenz (who had recently published a book on pharmogenetic illnesses) started with such a long-winded, convoluted, formal introduction that even when I bought the transcript, I found hard to follow.

Then the Englishman took the microphone and won me, the audience, and probably the entire debate with his opening remark, which was, "I think that's a load of bullsh it."

(Lorenz was probably correct in the things he wrote in his book but he had made a few errors and the other guy seized on them and shook him like a terrier. It was a fun debate.)

High School ... The last debate I watched the entire way through was between Reagan and Carter.  I learned quickly after my first time voting in a Presidential election that it doesn't matter what the candidates say.

The old adage is true: 
How do you know when a politician is lying?  They're talking.