Okay. So what if it's Hillary against Trump? What happens?

[0rganism]

91. that's a setback for HRC, but not a serious one and it can be reversed

people don't seem to pay a whole lot of attention to debates anyway, letting pundits evaluate winners and losers for them so they don't have to

HRC would lose her advantage on the debate stage, sure, but that's mostly relevant to political wonks who already have their minds made up anyway (especially if she's running against DT)

in return she (and her SuperPAC) gets to run ads that make her seem super tough and DT as a cowardly Loser: "Donald Trump is too afraid to debate Hillary Clinton, just think how those foreign leaders are going to feel when they go up against her" etc. he can counter-ad that he won't debate a criminal or whatever, but that effectively begins to move the debates into the ad space where he'll get hit in soundbites during football games - i don't think that's what he'd want.

overall, i'd say that move works in her favor