Are the Democratic debates covering topics voters actually care about?

The intent of a presidential primary debate is ostensibly to give voters a chance to understand the differences among candidates. In practice, though, that goal is necessarily filtered through moderators, generally members of the media, whose assessments of what’s important to dig into may not entirely jibe with what voters are interested in.

May not. It’s easy, in the abstract, to assume that debate moderators are doing voters a disservice, particularly because each of us has our own ideas of what issues are most important to cover, which themselves might...