Presidential Debates: No Change Here

The showdowns between John McCain and Barack Obama will look just like those ones in 2004 between John Kerry and President Bush.

By: Fred Cunningham | News Channel 7
Published: August 06, 2008 | 0 Comments | Post a Comment

The election of change will be the same old thing when it comes to the Presidential Debates. The showdowns between John McCain and Barack Obama will look just like those ones in 2004 between John Kerry and President Bush.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced their formats and moderators. I'll list their news release below, but a couple of quick thoughts:

1. I was hoping we'd have one debate with just the two candidates, no audience, and a moderator who would basically be removed from the proceedings. Just let the two men talk face-to-face instead of the dual news conference format that most of these encounters turn out to be for the voters.

Let the moderator serve mainly as a referee, and like the NBA, swallow your whistle and let them play. So what if it turns into a cable TV news screamfest? I think that would reveal some genuine characteristics of the men who are both presented to us so often on the campaign trail.

2. The political pundits will probably say the formats favor Obama. They generally say McCain performs best in the town hall format, but two of the three debates will have them seated at a table with a moderator.

Of course those same pundits - one year ago- would have told you these debates would have been between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.

COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES ANNOUNCES MODERATORS

August 5, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chairmen of the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), today announced the moderators for the 2008 general election presidential and vice presidential debates. The moderators, and the schedule and locations for the debates (as announced on November 21, 2007), are as follows:

First presidential debate
Friday, September 26
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS

Vice presidential debate
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing Editor, Washington Week, PBS

Second presidential debate (town meeting)
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.
Tom Brokaw
Special Correspondent, NBC News

Third presidential debate
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation

Each debate will begin at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Format

The format for the debates, announced on November 21, 2007, will be:

Each debate will have a single moderator and last for 90 minutes.

In the first and third presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, the candidates will be seated with the moderator at a table.

One presidential debate will focus primarily on domestic policy and one presidential debate will focus primarily on foreign policy. The second presidential debate will be held as a town meeting in which citizens will pose questions to the candidates. The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics.

During the first and third presidential debates, and the vice presidential debate, the time will be divided into eight, ten-minute segments. The moderator will introduce each segment with an issue on which each candidate will comment, after which the moderator will facilitate further discussion of the issue, including direct exchange between the candidates for the balance of that segment.

The participants in the town meeting will pose their questions to the candidates after reviewing their questions with the moderator for the sole purpose of avoiding duplication. The participants will be chosen by the Gallup Organization and will be undecided voters from the Nashville, Tenn. standard metropolitan statistical area. During the town meeting, the moderator has discretion to use questions submitted by Internet.

Time at the end of the final presidential debate will be reserved for closing statements.

Participants

The CPD 2008 Candidate Selection Criteria, announced on November 21, 2007, will be the exclusive means of determining the candidates to be invited to participate in the debates. For more information, please visit their website (click here)