It'll all come down to the debates

Until then, the campaigns will spend their time making wild accusations about who can’t take a joke and who is really in league with Putin and who let Putin hack their unsecured government emails and who’s a liar and who’s a big fat baby Putin lover.

But that’s just the day-to-day campaigning. The debates are the big deal, where they can say such things directly to one another’s face.

The first debate is scheduled for late September. And I can’t think of any contest that will be as closely watched as that one, even though Bill Clinton might fall asleep there, too.

These days, Americans decide a candidate’s qualifications not by what a candidate has honestly accomplished or whether they tell the truth, but by how well candidates perform talking and spinning.