A radical change could be coming to the three fall presidential and one vice presidential debates. Instead of President Obama and his opponent giving 90 second answers and 30 second retorts, the candidates are likely to get a chance to go at each other, Lincoln-Douglas style.
“We’re having a lot of discussions about how to have formats that will generate real engagements among the candidates on the issues,” said Michael McCurry, the former Clinton spokesman who is co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates. “I think that there is widespread consensus that an over-regulated debate format with 90 second answers and one minute responses and 30 second counter responses interferes with real conversations. So I think there is a predisposition to a format that might actually generate real dialogue,” said McCurry.
That would be a first and akin to what GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has been seeking in pushing for unstructured 1858 Lincoln-Douglas style debates where the candidates would chew over an issue for many minutes.
McCurry said that the commission has been fascinated by the multiple GOP debates, especially the differing moderator models. His view is that it would be better if the moderator or panel of questioners didn’t dominate the debate.
Only the debate structure has to be decided. The dates, cities and candidate criteria are already set. The presidential debates will be: Oct. 3 at the University of Denver in Denver, Co.; Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.; Oct. 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl., and the vice presidential debate Oct. 11 at Centre College, Danville, Ky.
Also, the commission will allow a third party to join if their candidate has at least 15 percent support in national polls and is on most state ballots.
