Here’s the debate schedule:
First presidential candidates’ debate between President Barack Obama, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney
- Topic: Domestic policy
- Date: Wednesday, Oct. 3
- Time: 9 – 10:30 p.m. EDT
- Location: University of Denver, Denver, Colo.
- Moderator: Jim Lehrer, executive editor of PBS’s “NewsHour”
- Format: “The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate,” according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. “The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.”
Vice presidential candidates’ debate between Vice President Joe Biden, Wis. Rep. Paul Ryan
- Topic: Foreign and domestic topics
- Date: Thursday, Oct. 11
- Time: 9 – 10:30 p.m. EDT
- Location: Centre College, Danville, Ky.
- Moderator: Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent, ABC News
- Format: “The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.”
Second presidential candidates’ debate between Obama, Romney
- Topic: Foreign and domestic issues
- Date: Tuesday, Oct. 16
- Time: 9 – 10:30 p.m. EDT
- Location: Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
- Moderator: Candy Crowley, chief political correspondent, CNN, and anchor, CNN’s “State of the Union”
- Format: “The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.”
Third presidential candidates’ debate between Obama, Romney
- Topic: Foreign policy
- Date: Monday, Oct. 22
- Time: 9 – 10:30 p.m. EDT
- Location: Lynn University, Boca Raton, Fla.
- Moderator: Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent, CBS News, and moderator, “Face the Nation”
- Format: “The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.”
My take: This debate schedule really worries me. It’s only 4 debates, and they are really late in the game. Voting has already started. None of the debates are with Fox News, so they will all feature biased questions about banning contraception and prayer in schools. Academic studies have all shown that the mainstream news media is largely biased to the left, so I just don’t expect that these debates will be fair. Why do Republicans agree to debates moderated by leftists, with topics chosen by leftists? I will never understand. We need more debates, and we need them to have longer speeches and fair and balanced moderators.
I’m expecting that Fox News Live will offer streaming of the debates as they occur, otherwise I will be watching the biased coverage of ABC News via Youtube.