ABC, Facebook announce partnership

ABC News and Facebook announced this morning that they will join forces during the presidential campaign -- and that one of their first major ventures will be back-to-back debates three days before the New Hampshire primary.

The partnership will combine the technology of the ubiquitous social networking site with ABC's coverage, which will be directly posted to Facebook, whose 55 million members will soon be able to discuss the campaign through a new Debate Groups tool accessed by putting "U.S. Politics" in the search field.

The collaboration will be in play for the Jan. 5 debates being sponsored by ABC and WMUR at St. Anselm College in Manchester.

"The goal is to extend the debate from being a one-hour session that happens on television to a dialogue that can take place before, after, and now during the debate between voters," Dan Rose, Facebook's vice president of business development, told ABC News.com.

The candidates have pages on Facebook, seeking support among younger voters who typically show up in smaller numbers on election day.