 as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas did in their famous debate of 1858. It was the most consequential set of debates in American history. The audio recreation of those debates, with David Strathairn, Richard Dreyfuss playing the parts of Lincoln and Douglas respectively, very much worth your cost, by the way. Those seven debates, each one of them, were three hours long. No moderator. First candidate spoke for an hour, then the candidate spoke for 90 minutes, and then the first one went 30 minutes. Three hours each. They alternated going first.