Jonah’s longtime friend Tevi Troy makes his second appearance on the program, this time to discuss not only the history of presidential debates, but also to share some info on how the sausage gets made from his time doing debate prep for George W. Bush. Beyond simply recounting some of the best zingers in the history of these debates (“The youth and inexperience of my opponent…” “You’re no Jack Kennedy.”), they discuss the degree to which these moments are actually staged, and how the pretzel-like overcomplicated logic of certain debate preppers actually contribute to their candidate looking pretty silly on national TV. Keeping this history in mind, Tevi also talks about what he’ll be looking for in the upcoming debates (both campaigns should be taking notes, honestly), and happily discovers that he has reached “Vin Cannato Equilibrium” in the canon of the REU (Remnant Extended Universe).

Show Notes:

-The Dispatch30-day free trial at

-Fight HouseTevi’s latest book,

-George H. W. Bush looks at his watch

-“Conservatism as a Second Language”

-Intra-American migration due to COVID

-Quayle/Gore debate highlight

-Bush headchecks Gore

-Biden decides to be, uh, pugilistic towards Paul Ryan

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices