would be a waste of time. allan lichtman is professor of history at the american university in washington. he's known for calling correctly eight out of the last nine us elections and he would argue, due to a technicality, it is actually nine out of nine. i asked him what he made of all the issues over the debates. i can't understand why donald trump wants to avoid debates. leave aside my prediction as we will, just looking at conventional analysis, he is way behind. he needs to change the game. avoiding debates won't do it. and by the way, there is precedent for, in essence, a virtual debate — 60 years ago, one of the kennedy—nixon debates was held virtually. nixon and kennedy and the moderator were all at remote locations, and theyjust had a screen of the two of them together. certainly, understandably, there is less opportunity to interrupt and bully, if that is what trump wants to do, but they did not serve him well in the first debate.