John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Great Debate Moments

Great debate moments.

It is the season of debates, it seems.
Which got me wondering: What is the greatest closing argument I’ve ever seen in a debate? How about you?

The answer that kept coming up for me was a debate I watched in college several years after it took place. William F Buckley, Jr. debated a California governor who later became our president.

And won.

The issue was one I cared little about: The Panama Canal Treaty.

But there was a modern eloquence–and elegance, passion, wit, and substantive command of the issue at hand that impressed me more than any other debater in any other debate I had seen before or since.

Here is the clip. Agree or disagree, you have to admit, you are watching a master debater at the top of his game: