Thursday, October 02, 2008

Open debates and the 2008 presidential debates


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From: Open Debates

Open Debates Update

First, for those of you interested in seeing any of the four third party candidates participate in a presidential debate, please visit http://www.thirdpartyticket.com. The organizers of Third Party Ticket are hosting a debate in New York City between the four third party candidates that will be broadcast online in October, and you can directly support their important efforts.

Second, there has been widespread criticism of how the Commission on Presidential Debates has received funding from corporations with regulatory interests before Congress. The Center for Public Integrity issued the following press release criticizing the corporate sponsorship: http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/712/

Third, Executive Director George Farah has been conducting several national media interviews to discuss the need to replace the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates with a genuinely nonpartisan sponsor. Today's interview of George Farah on Democracy Now can be seen or heard at the following link: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/2/no_debate_how_the_republican_and

George Farah will also appear on Fox News tonight at about 6pm EDT.

Fourth, in response to an eruption of criticism from Open Debates in 2004, the Commission advocated unprecedented formats for the 2008 presidential debates that eliminate restrictive time constraints and encourage direct confrontation between the candidates. When the Obama and McCain campaigns met behind closed doors to negotiate a debate contract, they largely ceded to the Commission’s proposal. For these format improvements, the Commission should be praised and our supporters congratulated.

However, unlike the Obama-McCain match-ups, the vice-presidential debate tonight between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, one of the most anticipated in history, will be constrained by major format restrictions. The debate will limit each candidate’s response to 90 seconds, followed by no more than two minutes of discussion. Both campaigns requested the time limitations to diminish the likelihood of their candidate committing a major gaffe, and the Commission predictably complied with the request and continues to conceal the written rules governing the debate.

Thank you for your support!

-- Open Debates Team


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