In the US -- I don't watch much political TV because I might have an apoplectic fit -- there is the yearly State of the Union address, which is more like "the Queen's Speech," a pre-written lecture read by the Presnit, with no debate, treated by the tame media almost as a kind of holy rite and by the dissident media (particularly with this Presnit) as a gold mine of political cartoon and op/ed material.  It is hard to imagine any of the current regime standing up well to an open debate;  Dubya would founder, babbling or freezing like the proverbial deer in the headlights, and the rest would probably feeling so outraged by; anyone daring to question them that they'd pitch a fit rather than engage with the opposition.  Consider the notorious 4-letter quality of Cheney's political repartee... it might be like a really, really bad Mamet movie :-)

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...