Presidential debates, though many, do offer some insights

WASHINGTON – Thirty-six-plus hours of televised debates in the 2016 presidential campaign have brought us Marco Rubio’s robotic moment, Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping sexual innuendo, Bernie Sanders’ dismissal of Hillary Clinton’s “damn emails” and Clinton’s denunciation of Sanders for an “artful smear.”

Oh, and we’ve heard about issues, too.

Is it all too much?

Trump, a reality TV star before he was a debate provocateur, says he’s bored. Sanders successfully lobbied for more debates. John Kasich calls the debates the “dumbest things going.”

“How many times can they ask you the same question over and over again?” Trump complained during a rally in Madison, Mississippi, this week. “Uh, it is so boring!”

In fact, this year’s debate schedule – at least 13 for Republicans and 10 for Democrats – is considerably shorter than in years past. Republicans debated 20 times during the 2012 GOP primary season; Democrats faced off 26 times during the 2008 primary campaign.

While viewership has cooled since a whopping 24 million people watched the first GOP debate of the 2016 campaign last August, considerable audiences still are tuning in. Nearly 17 million people watched the Republican debate last week in Detroit and 5.5 million saw the Democrats’ faceoff Sunday in Flint, Michigan.

Voters have used the debates to help winnow the GOP field from 17 to four and to pare the Democratic roster of candidates from five to two.

The Democrats debated Wednesday, but stay tuned: The Republicans will Thursday, and there are two more Democratic debates and at least one more Republican debate to come.

While the debates can be repetitive, they’ve given viewers a chance to see candidates refine their positions over time, think on their feet and demonstrate their ability to keep cool – or not – under fire. They have allowed some candidates to rise from relative obscurity – think Republicans Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson – and others to falter in a very big and public way.

The body language of the candidates during the debates has told viewers as much as their words.

Written policy papers may sound great, said body language expert Lillian Glass, but watching the candidates on stage prompts voters to think: “Do they really believe it? Is that true? How did they handle it under pressure? Can they answer underlying questions that go with it? Have they thought this through? Did somebody write this for them?”

There are sure to be more zingers, policy clashes and revealing moments when the candidates debate in Miami this week, but it’s not clear how the GOP debates could get more shocking.

They’ve become “the equivalent of political train wrecks,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan. “You don’t really feel good about watching them, but at the same time you can’t turn your head away.”