Presidential debates set
The campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain announced this morning they have formally accepted the lineup of presidential debates this fall.
"The campaigns have come to the earliest agreement on presidential debates reached in any general election in recent history," the joint statement said.
The campaigns said they also accepted the Commission on Presidential Debates' rules on third-party candidates, guidelines that make it unlikely that either Libertarian Bob Barr or independent Ralph Nader will be included unless they get a large and unexpected rise in the national polls to at least 15 percent.
The debates and formats:
First Presidential Debate:
Date: Sept. 26
Site: University of Mississippi
Topic: Foreign policy and national security
Moderator: Jim Lehrer of PBS
Staging: Podium debate
Format: The debate will be broken into nine, 9-minute segments. The moderator will introduce a topic and allow each candidate 2 minutes to comment. After these initial answers, the moderator will facilitate an open discussion of the topic for the remaining 5 minutes, ensuring that both candidates receive an equal amount of time to comment
Vice Presidential Debate
Date: Oct. 2
Site: Washington University in St. Louis
Moderator: Gwen Ifill of PBS
Staging/Answer Format: To be resolved after the vice presidential nominees are selected.
Second Presidential Debate
Date: Oct. 7
Site: Belmont University in Nashville
Moderator: Tom Brokaw of NBC
Staging: Town Hall debate
Format: The moderator will call on members of the audience (and draw questions from the Internet). Each candidate will have 2 minutes to respond to each question. Following those initial answers, the moderator will invite the candidates to respond to the previous answers, for a total of 1 minute, ensuring that both candidates receive an equal amount of time to comment. In the spirit of the Town Hall, all questions will come from the audience (or Internet), and not the moderator.
Third Presidential Debate
Date: Oct. 15
Site: Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Topic: Domestic and economic policy
Moderator: Bob Schieffer of CBS
Staging: Candidates will be seated at a table
Format: Same as first presidential debate, plus each candidate will get a 90-second closing statement.
While I have a definate bias toward one of the candidates, my question here is intended to be non-partisan.
In too many debates in the past, it has been very evident when either ( or both ) candidates had certain pre-programmed sound bytes ready to be used. More times than I can remember, it was almost humorous to watch the candidates find a way to "work in" one of these pre-programmed texts, regardless of the actual question / issue that they were addressing.
Do any of the respondents have any ideas as to how we can prevent this, and actually get a "straight answer" during these debbates ??
Hardly worth the effort....just like the evenong news ...all sound bites ..no substance.
electric shock for off topic answers
You could use a system of lights to indicate to the TV audience if the candidate gets off topic.
Problem is that this may be too subjective.
Over 50% of the people in a recent zogby poll show they want third party candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr in the debates.
The Inbdependent progressive Nasder/ Gonzalez icket, Green Party McKinney. Clementte ticket and Libertariasn Bob Barr ticket are on most of the state tickets despite all obstacles.
Why should the Democrats and Republicans go against the will of the people to include third party candidates. Especially when the Republican President and Deocrat Congress have the lowest approval ratings in history.
Let Nader, Barr and McKinney debate.
What a snooze this debate is going to be. Obama and McCain must really be cowards for not letting others debate.
Four "alternative" candidates gained ballot access in enough states to win in the Electoral College. Let them debate in this year of the two WORST D and R POTUS candidates in our lifetimes!
This year America look at ALL your alternatives! PLEASE! Dr.Chuck BaldWIN, Mr. Bob Barr, Ms. Cynthia McKinney, and Mr. Ralph Nader deserve a closer look by all of you. In the grocery store we have 50 plus brands of cereal to choose from, when it comes to one of the most important decisions in our lives WHY do we only have Ds and Rs to choose from? Why do we settle for such limits? Friends, the Ds and Rs have got us in the mess we are in!
Your vote belongs to you and whom you choose to give it to! Don't fall for the "wasted vote" propaganda! The only wasted vote you will ever make is giving it to someone who really doesn't represent your views and is only the "LESSER OF TWO EVILS"! And may we NEVER forget, the lesser of two evils is and always will be EVIL !!!
ALLOW Dr.Chuck BaldWIN (Constitution Party), Mr. Bob Barr (Libertarian Party), Ms. Cynthia McKinney (Green Party), and Mr. Ralph Nader in ALL POTUS DEBATES...
OBAMA MEDIA BIAS ... NOW, OBAMA DEBATE BIAS !!!
The nation already is skeptical about the fairness and objectivity of the mainstream media regarding election coverage ... so, why in the world is Gwen Ifill the debate moderator, when she is writing a book about Obama ... especially since her book sales would increase if Obama/Biden win? The moderator in a debate ... especially one of this importance and magnitude ... should be seen as completely fair, objective and above reproach. This is a terrible choice, and could easily have been remedied by choosing from hundreds of other more objective potential moderators. I can imagine the outcry if Michelle Malkin, or Ann Coulter was chosen as the moderator for the first Vice Presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. FURTHERMORE ... Everyone knows that Roland Martin is in the tank for Obama ... and regarding his call for Palin to either 'put up, or shut up' ... for millions of Americans, we still feel that Obama never adequately explained why he chose to spend TWENTY YEARS, yes TWENTY YEARS, in Jeremiah Wright's anti-American, racist, black liberation church, which gave a life time achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, and Obama only quit the church due to public outrage and personal ambition.
I may have missed it, but as yet, I haven't seen any candidate address the issue of high cost of health care being caused by the excessive compensation packages for the CEO's of health care organizations, and health insurance companies. Also there has been hints at insurance companies instructing their staff to deny claims or benefits. Obama hinted at it tonight in the debate when he referenced his mothers fight with the insurance company to cover her cancer costs.
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