Skilled debaters know that when you get a question you can’t answer or don’t want to answer, you swat it away and instead answer a question more to your liking.

President Obama does this in virtually every news conference he’s ever given: “Look, here’s what’s going on here.” Or, “I’m going to be totally frank with you . . .” Or, “The problem nobody wants to talk about is . . .” Boom, pivot to your talking points.

If Holt takes the bad advice of Clinton advocates and argues with Trump, rather than letting the candidates argue with each other, it’ll mean cutting in on him. “Mr. Trump, the question was about—” “Mr. Trump, that isn’t what I asked.” “Mr. Trump, can we get back to the subject—” Interrupting Trump will be a mistake.

Whatever his failings may be, Trump is an alpha male, and Holt is a nerd. Nobody outside the media-political-progressive class likes to see nerds beat alphas. It’s contrary to the basic order of things.