An Idea to Improve Presidential Debates

The Lonely Centrist has an excellent suggestion for improving the informative nature of presidential debates:

My mild suggestion, if we have to have these things, would be to at least make each debate on a single topic, and not have questions but let the candidates talk and rebut on the topic. By now, each party could have had one on Iraq; one on Immigration; one on the Economy. A few more could cover Health care; family and values (a broad umbrella for abortion, gay marriage etc.); National Security (somewhat redundant with Iraq but merited); Political and Ethics Reform; etc.

Give each candidate some time to blather by themselves and then lightly moderate an exchange between the candidates.

A good idea, but this one also holds merit of a certain kind:

Of course, the real fun would be if we did it like American Idol or Survivor, and voted one contestant off the stage each week.

That would make for much more entertaining debates and it might even get that all important youth vote involved.