March 2, 2007

A Debatable Way to Win an Argument

By LAUREN SMITH

How do you debate a college forensics opponent who is arguing entirely in Spanish if you don't speak the language? How do you counter someone who is meditating lotus-style or rapping to Tupac Shakur instead of quoting public-policy theorists?

Such tactics are called "performance debate," and they're being used by a new wave of rebel rhetoricians to manhandle the onetime national powerhouses of collegiate debate.

"The first rule of debate is that all things are debatable," says