On Being a Good Debater
It’s not a sufficient condition for being a good POTUS. And perhaps it’s not necessary. But I’d rather have a president who can debate well. Otherwise, advisors and interlocutors (foreign and domestic) might get the intellectual upper hand.
By the way, presidential ‘debates’ are usually poor examples of that noble form of discourse. If a candidate doesn’t do well in a presidential ‘debate,’ it doesn’t follow that the candidate can’t debate. Similarly, if a candidate is successful, it doesn’t follow that the candidate is good at forensics.