President Bush and Sen. John Kerry will debate three times. Vice President Cheney and Senator Edwards will debate once.
The first debate will be on foreign policy and homeland security. It will be on Thursday, Sept. 30, at 8 pm (central time). It will be held at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of PBS’s "The NewsHour," will moderate. The candidates will stand at lecterns for this one.
The second debate will be on Friday, Oct. 8, at 8 pm (central time). It will be a townhall format, hosted at Washington University in St. Louis. Charles Gibson, co-anchor of ABC News’s "Good Morning America" will be the moderator. The audience will be chosen by the Gallup Organization. The voters won’t be “undecideds” per se, but rather those who are “soft” on the candidates. The candidates will sit on stools.
The third debate will be on Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 8 pm (central time), focusing upon domestic and economic policy. It will be held at Arizona State University in Tempe. Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and moderator of "Face the Nation," will be moderating. The candidates will stand at lecterns.
The Vice-presidential candidates debate on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 8 pm (central time). The debate will be held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Both foreign and domestic issues will be discussed. Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent of "The NewsHour" and moderator of "Washington Week" on PBS will be the moderator. The candidates will be seated at a table.
Bush and Kerry had their surrogates, James Baker and Vernon Jordan (respectively) act as their representatives to reach an agreement on all sorts of formatting issues:
• No opening statements, but candidates may make two-minute closing statements.
• Candidates may not bring props or notes onto the stage.
• Taking notes is allowed. Paper and pens or pencils to be used must be submitted to the commission in advance.
• The candidates cannot question their opponent directly, aside from rhetorical questions.
• Each candidate may use his own makeup person.
• In the town hall debate, each candidate may walk about in a designated area, but the areas can't overlap. [Recall Gore wandering into W’s personal space!]
• Each candidate will be assigned a dressing room of comparable size and quality.
