The details have not been finalized, but it appears that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will debate at least twice before November, although if Trump gets his way there will be four debates, not just two.

The Biden campaign released a video featuring Biden challenging Trump to two debates and a separate letter by campaign head Jennifer O’Malley Dillon explaining why Biden would not be working with the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The first reason cited by the Biden campaign for ditching the Commission on Presidential Debates is perfectly reasonable considering how the voting process has changed over the last decade. It used to be that most voters went to the polls on Election Day, so debates scheduled in October made sense. But now, thanks to widespread early voting, many voters vote weeks and sometimes months before November. October is just too late a date for debates.

The second reason is less understandable. “The Commission’s model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense simply isn’t necessary or conducive to good debates,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors, who consume valuable debate time with noisy spectacles of approval or jeering.”

Spare me. 

Politics, especially at the highest level of presidential debates, is all about spectacle. The more noisy and raucous the better.

Of course, an old man like Biden might get frightened or confused in such an environment, which is why his campaign is trying to make the debates as sterile as an old folks home.

Biden also wants to limit the number of debates to just two, one in June and one in September, while Trump is pushing for four debates, one a month, starting with June, then July, then August, then September.

“We believe the American people deserve more than what the Biden administration has to offer,” Trump’s campaign wrote in its response calling for four and not two debates.

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“Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!” Trump posted separately on social media.

Some of us may not like it, but politics is theater. Trump thinks he can outshine Biden onstage, and he wants to maximize his opportunities to do so. Whether Biden meets the challenge remains to be seen.