In the hours since Tuesday night’s first 2,020 presidential election candidates debate you may have noticed as I have how talk show hosts and news commentators  on each side of the political  spectrum have tried to justify and excuse the behavior of the white house candidate they support: seeking to justify President Trump’s constant interruptions of his opponent former vice president Joe Biden and debate moderator Chris Wallace, and Biden’s seeming refusal to directly answer several questions put to him.  The uncontrolled nature of the proceedings in Cleveland  is actually  expected to result in changes in the format that’s used for the remaining 2 debates of the campaign.  But if you think that the political discourse in America has fallen to lows never seen in our history I would quickly point out that that’s not necessarily true.  You probably learned in high school history class that a long-running dispute between then vice president Aaron Burr and Former U.S. Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton ended on July 11, 1,803 in Weehawken New Jersey with a deadly duel that left Hamilton shot to death.  The 2 white house hopefuls in this year’s presidential sweepstakes  no doubt spent a lot of time with advisors and handlers who told them how to make the most of Tuesday night’s debate. We might have all been better served if they’d spent just a little time with  any high school speech teacher. That’s the way I see it.