One of the reasons I respect the judgment of our professional political operatives is that they have never invited me to participate in a presidential debate. I'd never invite me either. Why not? Because before I took the veil of journalism, I was one of those operatives, spending days and nights drilling candidates with every conceivable question they could possibly expect--which means I have an arsenal of questions they could not possibly anticipate.
Most journalists do not understand how clever these operatives are. For instance, reporters think it fiendishly clever to ask the flip-flop question. ("Sir, in 1986 you voted to...