The Potemkin 2024 Presidential Debate Commission

The Commission on Presidential Debates on Monday announced three dates and locations for the 2024 TV extravaganzas it’s planning, but a real question is whether anybody will show up. The public can benefit from well run debates that put White House hopefuls on the same stage, but the commission’s position looks precarious.

Every four years since 1988, this nonprofit group of political grandees has sponsored presidential debates. Yet Republicans have complained lately that its events start too late in the year to catch early voters and that the moderators frame their topics and questions using Democratic assumptions. Last year the Republican National Committee voted to cease cooperating with the commission.