Your Debate Moderators
Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chairmen of the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), announced the moderators for the 2008 general election presidential and vice presidential debates:
First presidential debate, 9/26
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor, The NewsHour, PBS
Vice presidential debate, 10/2
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), 10/7
Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Tom Brokaw, special correspondent, NBC News
Third presidential debate, 10/15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent, and host, Face the Nation
Each debate will begin at 9:00 p.m. EDT. Format details are available after the jump.
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.
How's about a debate west of the Mississippi, huh?
Nothing exists west of the Mississippi, don'tcha know.
Exposing character flaws mutually exclusive with office qualifications and doing so with honesty is important. We all knew, hoped, and expected Senators McCain and Obama would do so in the campaign. Lies, inuendos, and rumors designed to exploit the electorate's "feed-it-to-me-slowly" laziness, ignorance, and gullibility, is something else.
Painting a presidential candidate a terrorist without fact, only inuendo, however, seems worse than reviving the rumors about Sarah Palin promising sex in exchange for passing grades.
Such character assasination by circumstancial facts are reprehensible. We might forgive the Alaskan Governor for her secluded, parochial ignorance of integrity, honesty, and willingness to disclose facts about herself and her old mistakes. But the Republican Presidential Nominee, when operating with more honesty and integrity within recent memory, was a victim of this tactic. I presumed his awareness of the harm such lies and accusations caused -- by appealling to the least politically energetic masses' fears and prejudices -- had motivated him to vow and promote a different election season this year.
It would easy to suggest that, like Gov. Palin in the recent "debate," Senator McCain decided 'only dummies follow the rules." That's not a maverick, such as he once was. That's just hiding skeletons, including indecisiveness or worse from the voters.
I don't believe he sees himself as better than his peers; rather that those who disagree are ill-informed or are not as bright as he. But his coaches and handlers clearly do seek to exploit those who haven't had the same advantages and dramatic experiences that have created his certainty that he is right and cannot be wrong.
I had, at one time, considered voting for the man who had once been a rebellious warrior. It wasn;t a result of him tenacity and retraction when holding-out against the massive odds to which almost all others yielded as a POW. That is not a qualification for my President.
Nor is age a valid issue. But electing a Vice-President who can perform competently is. Governor Palin has demonstrated she hasn't the intelligence for the traditional office of Vice-President, let alone a Cheney-esque one. Her main qualification, she submits, is that she's a common person.
My fervent hope, belief, thought, and prayer, is that people will not promote someone of only common ability into the Vicer-Presidency of the United States. We've already seen what that has done to our nation's standing within the community of the world's nations under the "leadership" of the current administration.
His choice of Governor Palin wasn't the 'final straw.' In addition to those stances the Obama-and-Biden ticket hold on women, enconomic issues such as healthcare and energy, it seems clear that Senator McCain's temperament has eaten his perception of and commitment to honor and integrity. He's nothing more than another lying politician now: At best.
Sorry, Senator McCain. For the last 20+ years I've been there, done that, and have the economic scars to prove it. The only character flaws you've exposed, Senator McCain, are your own. Perhaps you can still find some integrity and honor in your old uniform.
Exposing character flaws mutually exclusive with office qualifications and doing so with honesty is important. We all knew, hoped, and expected Senators McCain and Obama would do so in the campaign. Lies, inuendos, and rumors designed to exploit the electorate's "feed-it-to-me-slowly" laziness, ignorance, and gullibility, is something else.
Painting a presidential candidate a terrorist without fact, only inuendo, however, seems worse than reviving the rumors about Sarah Palin promising sex in exchange for passing grades.
Such character assasination by circumstancial facts are reprehensible. We might forgive the Alaskan Governor for her secluded, parochial ignorance of integrity, honesty, and willingness to disclose facts about herself and her old mistakes. But the Republican Presidential Nominee, when operating with more honesty and integrity within recent memory, was a victim of this tactic. I presumed his awareness of the harm such lies and accusations caused -- by appealling to the least politically energetic masses' fears and prejudices -- had motivated him to vow and promote a different election season this year.
It would easy to suggest that, like Gov. Palin in the recent "debate," Senator McCain decided 'only dummies follow the rules." That's not a maverick, such as he once was. That's just hiding skeletons, including indecisiveness or worse from the voters.
I don't believe he sees himself as better than his peers; rather that those who disagree are ill-informed or are not as bright as he. But his coaches and handlers clearly do seek to exploit those who haven't had the same advantages and dramatic experiences that have created his certainty that he is right and cannot be wrong.
I had, at one time, considered voting for the man who had once been a rebellious warrior. It wasn;t a result of him tenacity and retraction when holding-out against the massive odds to which almost all others yielded as a POW. That is not a qualification for my President.
Nor is age a valid issue. But electing a Vice-President who can perform competently is. Governor Palin has demonstrated she hasn't the intelligence for the traditional office of Vice-President, let alone a Cheney-esque one. Her main qualification, she submits, is that she's a common person.
My fervent hope, belief, thought, and prayer, is that people will not promote someone of only common ability into the Vicer-Presidency of the United States. We've already seen what that has done to our nation's standing within the community of the world's nations under the "leadership" of the current administration.
His choice of Governor Palin wasn't the 'final straw.' In addition to those stances the Obama-and-Biden ticket hold on women, enconomic issues such as healthcare and energy, it seems clear that Senator McCain's temperament has eaten his perception of and commitment to honor and integrity. He's nothing more than another lying politician now: At best.
Sorry, Senator McCain. For the last 20+ years I've been there, done that, and have the economic scars to prove it. The only character flaws you've exposed, Senator McCain, are your own. Perhaps you can still find some integrity and honor in your old uniform.