WI: Radio Presidential Debates

[lerk]

One idea which I find interesting is whether or not the major party nominees would agree to a nationwide radio presidential debate around the 1920s-1940s. Could this had been done? What circumstances would have to be there in order for this to become a possibility? How would this impact American politics?

 

[Oppo]

Part of the problem with a radio debate is that every election in that period was a landslide, so there would be little incentive for one to take place. Notably, Wendell Willkie challenged FDR to a radio debate in 1940, but Roosevelt declined. If FDR doesn’t go for a third term and the race is much closer, it’s not unlikely at all that a debate could have taken place.

 

[Japhy]

Dewey and Stassen did one for the Republican Primary in 1948.