Q: When is a debate not a debate?

A: When it's in Blue Ash, apparently.

The latest round in the back-and-forth between the campaigns of Jean Schmidt and Bob McEwen over debates came Thursday afternoon when the Schmidt campaign issued a notice saying they had agreed to an April 19 half-hour televised debate on WLWT (Channel 5).

This came a week or so after Schmidt pulled out of a debate sponsored by the Anderson Township Republican Club. Her campaign manager, Allen Freeman, claimed the pro-McEwen crowd in Anderson was laying in wait to do a number on her, just like they did on Pat DeWine in the special GOP primary last spring.

This left the Schmidt camp eager to show that they are not afraid to go toe-to-toe with McEwen - thus, Thursay's press release, in which Freeman crows that his candidate is now committed to no less than four "face to face debates'' with McEwen - the WLWT affair, an April 30 appearance on WKRC-TV's Newsmakers show, a meeting in front of the Dayton Daily News and an April 12 event at the Blue Ash Republican Club.

The two half-hour TV debates will, in fact, be face to face encounters. The Dayton editorial board meeting will be whatever the Dayton Daily News wants it to be; and, at any rate, the voting public is not invited.

The Blue Ash Republican Club meeting is nothing like the "face to face debate'' described in the Schmidt news release. Freeman acknowledged as much to the Enquirer Thursday afternoon.

What it is is the political equivalent of "open mike night'' at your corner bar - candidates show up at the Blue Ash Recreation Center and get up on their hind legs to deliver a short stump speech to the GOP faithful. No interaction between the candidates; no debate.

Long experience has convinced us that politicians are more interested in debating about debates than in debates themselves.