I just finished watching the last presidential debate of this cycle.  They're always being cut off.  Because they only spend 10 minutes on each topic before moving on, the candidates only have enough time to break out the stump speech numbers and to talk past each other.  When they do engage directly, there isn't enough time to have a proper policy debate.  Just a lot of "yes I did", "no you didn't" back and forth.  Ugh.

Stop repeating your stump speeches and talking past each other.

I think we need a series of "working discussions" where the candidates would talk for an hour on just one topic.  It would be moderated with timers and rules.  But the discussion for the full hour or two will be on a specific topic like the economy or foreign policy.  The candidates would have their running mates and select staff there too.  The staff is for fact checking and providing data.

The moderator could be a select panel of experts so there could be more of a conversation.

Think gathering everyone in your living room to talk about technology, abortion, taxes, or whatever your favorite issue might be.

There's a lot of potential topics that could hold my attention for two hours. 

We could go through all the cabinet level positions and have a debate on each one.  Or a few of the smaller ones can be rolled up into bigger discussions, but have a dedicated 30 minutes minimum.

I'd like to see at least a full hour or two dedicated to these topics:

1. Health & Human Services - healthcare, welfare, social programs
2. Economy - jobs, business, taxes
3. Local and National Security - police, immigration, domestic surveillence
4. Foreign policy - go country by country covering at least the hotspots.
5. Energy & Environment - We'll need way more energy but also be way more sustainable.  It's the big challenge of the 21st century.
6. Government - politics, state vs federal, campaign financing
7. Education - The biggest strength of the US and we're letting it crumble.

We're still learning how to effectively use the Internet.

In the Internet Age, presidential candidates shouldn't have to criss-cross the country dozens of times giving the same stump speech (tweaked to favor locals).  These days, those repeat stump speeches are a waste of everybody's time -- not to mention the ineffectiveness of local spin -- because every speech is broadcast worldwide on YouTube anyway.

Imagine all the hours we'll get to dive deeply into a candidate's position on very specific issues if they didn't have to appeal to everyone and address everything at every speech.

Then we can vote based on hours of getting to know a candidate's thought process instead of minutes of soundbites.

How can we make this happen?