2012: Debates announced for presidential 'general election'

Debates announced for presidential general election

(CNN) - The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday the dates and locations of the three presidential debates, as well as the vice presidential debate, set for October 2012.

Wednesday, October 3
University of Denver, Denver, CO

Thursday, October 11 (Vice presidential debate)
Centre College, Danville, KY

Tuesday, October 16 (Town meeting format)
Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Monday, October 22
Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL

SNIP

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/31/debates-announced-for-general-presidential-election/

At least five.

more of them, spread throughout the campaign season, with more candidates participating.

and debate formats intentionally designed to sabotage thoughtful dialogue, I don't really see how it makes a difference.

turned into a vanity show for the msm and the candidates rarely answer their softball questions anyway.

I suppose they are better than NO debates, but not by much.

From the OP article:

SNIP

As for criteria, candidates "must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College," in addition to meeting the Constitutional requirements for the presidency, according to a release from the commission.

Candidates must also have at least 15% national support, as determined by the average data from five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the commission.

SNIP

Commission on Presidential Debates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates

"The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) began in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties to establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates for President of the United States.

...The Commission is headed by Frank Fahrenkopf, a former head of the Republican National Committee, and former Massachusetts Senator Paul Kirk, a former head of the Democratic National Committee. Under the leadership of these two former heads of party, the CPD established a rule that for a party to be included in the national debates it must garner at least 15% support across five national polls.

...In 1988, the League of Women Voters withdrew its sponsorship of the presidential debates after the George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis campaigns secretly agreed to a "memorandum of understanding" that would decide which candidates could participate in the debates, which individuals would be panelists (and therefore able to ask questions), and the height of the podiums. The League rejected the demands and released a statement saying that they were withdrawing support for the debates because "the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter."<4>

Christopher Hitchens speaking at a September, 2000 third party protest at the Commission's headquarters.At a press conference announcing the commission's creation, Fahrenkopf said that the commission was not likely to include third-party candidates in debates, and Kirk said he personally believed they should be excluded from the debates.<5>

...In 2004, citing the CPD's 32 page debate contract, Connie Rice on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show called the CPD debates "news conferences," and "a reckless endangerment of democracy."<6> On October 8, 2004, Green Party candidate David Cobb was arrested in an act of civil disobedience, breaking a police line while protesting the Commission on Presidential Debates for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri. Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik also was arrested in the protest."


United States presidential election debates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates

"Debate sponsorshipControl of the presidential debates has been a ground of struggle for more than two decades. The role was filled by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters (LWV) civic organization in 1976, 1980 and 1984. In 1987, the LWV withdrew from debate sponsorship, in protest of the major party candidates attempting to dictate nearly every aspect of how the debates were conducted. On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a dramatic press release:

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.
The same year the two major political parties assumed control of organizing presidential debates through the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The commission has been headed since its inception by former chairs of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee."

2nd election in a row.