Iowa Politics with Jeff Stein -- Tue. Aug. 11, 2026

Debate on debates.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

Predictably it's the time of year when the political debate becomes about debates.

Now as someone who used to host and organize debates among political candidates, let me be clear, these days they are a complete waste of time.

And so is the current debate about debates.

In the last 20 years, name me a situation in a candidate debate in Iowa that made a difference, either gave us some light about a position or issue, or showed a candidate in either a favorable or unfavorable light.

The bottom line is that they are nice, rigid events, where the candidates barely acknowledge the other person's presence.

They are essentially joint news conferences where canned answers are provided to predictable questions.

But at this point, the battle of the news releases is taking place.

Candidate A charges candidate B with ducking debates.

Candidate B says candidate A welched on his or her original promise to meet.

Well, then there will be a fight about format and so on and so on.

None of this, of course, has anything to do with how candidates stand on issues or how they would respond in a given situation.

It only proves that staff members can duke it out in their respective candidate's name.

And even if events are held, they'll be predictable and boring, featuring predictable responses from party regulars all claiming their candidate was the clear winner.

Sometimes those response news releases are accidentally sent before the event is over.

I guess their crystal balls must be that good.

So enough debate about debates.

How about instead issuing a policy statement about an issue that impacts Iowans instead of a schoolyard brawl about whose turn it is to jump on the swing?

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Tuesday, August 11.

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I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540, KXEL.