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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2008 > August > 21 > Entry
Candidates agree on debate rules
The Obama and McCain campaigns today released a joint statement announcing they have agreed on rules and specifics for the three presidential candidate debates and the one featuring the vice presidential candidates.
Click continue reading to see the deal, which includes a presidential debate in which all questions will come from the audience or the internet:
First Presidential Debate:
- Date: September 26
- Site: University of Mississippi
- Topic: Foreign Policy & National Security
- Moderator: Jim Lehrer
- Staging: Podium debate
- Answer 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: October 2nd
- Site: Washington University (St. Louis)
- Moderator: Gwen Ifill
- Staging/Answer Format: To be resolved after both parties’ vice presidential nominees are selected.
Second Presidential Debate
- Date: October 7
- Site: Belmont University
- Moderator: Tom Brokaw
- Staging: Town Hall debate
- Format: The moderator will call on members of the audience (and draw questions from the Internet). Each candidate will have two 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: October 15
- Site: Hofstra University
- Topic: Domestic and Economic policy
- Moderator: Bob Schieffer
- Staging: Candidates will be seated at a table
- Answer Format: Same as First Presidential Debate
- Closing Statements: At the end of this debate (only) each candidate shall have the opportunity for a 90-second closing statement.
All four debates will begin at 9 p.m. ET, and last for 90 minutes. Both campaigns also agreed to accept the Commission on Presidential Debates’ participation rules for third-party candidate participation.
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