No matter when it takes place, there will be a first debate between the candidates. Here are 10 (naturally — this is America) tips for getting the most out of it and the debates that follow.

1. Ignore the “morning line” about how well each candidate is expected to do, what each candidate “needs to accomplish,” and so on. All that chatter is noise in the system — it has nothing to do with anything.

2. Tune in early and watch the pre- and post-debate programming on C-Span. Why C-Span? Before the debate, you’ll get a sense of the setting — what the scene is like, who’s in the audience, etc. Afterward, you can see how the candidates behave when they think the cameras are off.

3. Are the candidates you see and hear in the debates consistent with their commercials and their opponent’s commercials? If not, disregard the commercials. Remember those Head-On commercials—“Head-On — Apply directly to the forehead”? Assuming you tried that product, which would you then trust more — the commercial or the experience you had with it?

4. Trust your ability to size up people when evaluating the candidates. Critics of debates sometimes charge that they’re personality contests. Well, by constitutional design, the presidency is a unitary office. Because “the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States,” who these people are matters.

5. Evaluate what you see — body language and facial expressions — as well as what you hear. Lawyers call it “demeanor evidence.” We humans seem to be hard-wired to judge qualities like sincerity and trustworthiness, so why not take advantage of that?

6. How well do the candidates handle the unexpected? In 1980 Ronald Reagan crossed the stage to shake Jimmy Carter’s hand. Carter looked like he was about to be mugged. Four years earlier, Carter, like President Gerald Ford, stood silently behind their podiums when the sound went off for nearly a half hour. Rigidity when things didn’t go as programmed turned out to be one of Carter’s less helpful qualities in office.

7. When a debate is over, ignore the pundits and polls and make up your own mind. After each debate concluded in 1960 the networks went straight to regular programming (including Jackpot Bowling with Milton Berle on NBC) instead of punditizing on what it all meant. Pretend it’s 1960.

8. Watch as many of the debates as you can. Debates have different themes, different topics, different formats, all of which help us to assess how well the candidates wear over time. In 1992 Ross Perot won the first debate with lots of zippy one-liners. But that’s all he had, and when he trotted out the same lines in subsequent debates, his stock faded.

9. Don’t miss the vice-presidential debate. It’s useful as a way to size up the vice-presidential candidates as vice presidents, as well as to size up the vice-presidential candidates as possible presidents. Also, it tends to be livelier — vice presidential candidates don’t have to worry about seeming presidential.

10. Don’t rely entirely on the debates. All the candidates (even Sarah Palin) have records that are deeper and longer than the six hours they will spend in debate.