Reply #7: First debates in 1960, then not until '76

[Bucky]

The debates were well on the way to becoming a tradition in 196O, But in '64 LBJ chose not to debate. He was on his way to a landslide and didn't want to give his opponent equal billing (Goldwater was a great debater, albeit nuts). Nixon in '68 turned down Humphrey's challenge to debate and the tradition languished for another 8 years.

Since then the tradition has emerged of challengers begging for debates and incumbents (or in 2000 the frontrunning idiot) demuring until the last minute. This year is the best chance any president has had in the last thirty years to end the tradition. If they possibly can, you can be the Bushies will try to avoid a debate, then negotiate the number of debates down to one or two (also Carter's strategy, btw).

Our job as citizens in this process is to push and advocate for debates, to not let the guy who's taken several month-long vactions in the past three years to claim he's too busy being a war president to have a two-hour argument about the country's future.