Presidential Debate Schedule Bias

[Shawn Azman]

So, in anticipation of the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday October 2nd, I decided to look at the schedule for the other two Presidential debates. What I found kind of surprised me. Here are the dates and locations for all 4 debates:

September 26, 2008: University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

October 2, 2008: Washington University, St. Louis, MO

October 7, 2008: Belmont University, Nashville, TN

October 15, 2008: Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

It struck me as odd that the Mississippi River seems to be the geographical cut off point for the debates. Does the debate commission have some grudge against the Western half of the US? Now, I was born and raised in the Midwest, so I love the attention, however, if I were from the West, I think I would feel neglected? Any thoughts?

[piggybank]

marking my calendar now...

my first reaction to your point was WEST = California = Liberals

of course, not everyone would come out with that, but this was just my brain diahrea pooping out

then again, the GOP convention was in saint paul...i dunno, probably a coincidence, but i wouldn't put it past them to think the west=liberal breeding grounds

[Shawn Azman]

Yea, I would hope that either side would not worry about the bias of the state when going into the debate. Considering that the debate is moderated by a 'non-partisan' moderator (although Gwen Ifill may not have been as non-partisan as some would like), debating in a non-friendly state may even allow and opportunity to reach voters you may not have gotten a chance to see (just a thought).

And I looked into who actually schedules and puts on the debates, and its an organization called the Commission on Presidential Debates. This organization is non-profit bi-partisan. So, seeing as how its not strictly the GOP nor the Dems that pick the place, I still find it interesting there's nothing west of the Mississippi. I mean, even if the GOP were worried about it being in California, and was adamant that it cannot be there (not exactly sure how that works, but I rememebr McCain saying he wanted more debates - 10 town hall debates - and Obama saying he did not. So we can see the campaigns do have direct input into the debates.) they could still have it Utah or something, at least give the West Coast some love.

[piggybank]

Originally Posted by Shawn Azman

YI rememebr McCain saying he wanted more debates - 10 town hall debates - and Obama saying he did not.

Is that even feasible? Like- how did it go from him wanting 15 to there only being 4? Is there that much flexibility? Why not 15 regular, non-town hall debates? And wasn't tonight's a 'town hall'?

I wonder what prez race in the history of America had the most official presidential debates. 4 seems a little bit sketchy, dont you think?

So confused.

[Shawn Azman]

I agree, having 10 between the conventions and the election seems very tight. However, when McCain offered the format of 10 town hall debates, it happened in early July, when the two candidates had secured enough delegates to carry their parties nomination. Therefore, the debates would he held during the summer leading up to the convention, instead of after the conventions.

And, as is says in the article above, only 1 other time has an agreement like what McCain was proposing ever happened. It was between Sen Barry Goldwater and President John F Kennedy in 1963. However, Kennedy was assassinated before the campaign began. However, in 1858, the famous Lincoln Douglas debates happened, where the two debated 7 times across America. But, those debates were unheard of in that time, and it shows, because the next Presidential debate was not until 1948.

I found a list of all of the past Presidential debates. And, I did not know this, but I guess it makes sense, that before the broadcast era in 1960, there was really no need or demand for Presidential debates. There were only 2 radio broadcast debates in 1948 and 1952, and the first televised debate did not happen until 1956. In 1960 Kennedy and Nixon had 4 televised debates, but the 16 years following did not have any. But in the last 32 years, the trend has been to have 2-4 debates between the Presidents.