2008 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums
[10] Although, some public fanfare occurred initially,[12] pundits considered the debate unspectacular, and no single "breakout" candidate was identified.
[14] However, journalists Tom Baldwin, of The Times, and Ewen MacAskill, of The Guardian, both reported that Clinton appeared to retain her frontrunner status.
[15] Political pundits such as Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough declared Clinton the most "presidential", stating that her appearance and answers were: succinct, within the time limit, unambiguous and thorough.
[17] Blitzer was joined by Tom Fahey of the New Hampshire Union Leader and Scott Spradling from the local television station WMUR.
The moderator was Tavis Smiley and all eight candidates discussed a range of topics, including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community.
An on-stage conversation between Edwards and Clinton was overheard—due to activated microphones—in which they talked about eventually ceasing the participation of non-frontrunner candidates in future debates.
New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai, DailyKos Contributing Editor /Fellow Joan McCarter and author and blogger Jeffrey Feldman moderated.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel participated.
[26] ABC News in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party held a debate streamed on This Week moderated by George Stephanopoulos.
[31] Obama rejected PBS's invitation, and Gravel and Kucinich were excluded from the debate because they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.
It was announced on October 19 that Senator Gravel did not meet the polling requirements for the debate, though the DNC did not specifically say what the requirements were; Gravel has suggested that GE, which owns NBC and is a "war-profiteer," conspired to exclude him from the event after, during the previous debate, he questioned Hillary Clinton's signing a resolution that would possibly facilitate entering war with Iran.
[33] Seven Democratic presidential candidates participated in a two-hour debate starting at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) and telecast on MSNBC and streamed live on msnbc.com.
[35] Democratic rivals focused their attacks on Senator Clinton, and were particularly critical of her response to a proposal from New York Governor Eliot L. Spitzer which would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.
[36] After the debate, moderator Tim Russert was criticized for asking a misleading question to Senator Clinton regarding the release of her records as first lady.
Tim Russert raised the issue of a letter which Bill Clinton wrote in which the former president ordered "a ban" on the release of his records by the National Archives.
[38] The candidates present at the debate were Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and John Edwards.
The debate was broadcast from the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines to NPR stations around the country and was streamed online.
The Register determined "that a person working out of his home did not meet our criteria for a campaign office and full-time paid staff in Iowa."
[43] According to Nielsen Media Research, the debate drew the largest televised audience of the primary season with an estimated 9.36 million viewers.
[44] At 8:47 p.m. EST, between the two debates, Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson joined the Republican candidates on the stage at St. Anselm College in greater Manchester.
[citation needed] ABC News eliminated Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from the debate because they did not place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.
[citation needed] Major topics were introduced with a short news-clip-style video produced by ABC and the candidates were encouraged to interact with each other.
"[47] At another point in the debate, when one moderator asked Clinton why polls showed she was less "likeable" than other candidates, particularly Obama, she jokingly replied, "Well that hurts my feelings ... but I'll try to go on.
The debate was telecast live by MSNBC and held at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, from 6–8 pm Pacific Standard Time.
This debate set another record for a Cable TV audience with an estimated 4.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals Ratings.
[56] NBC News held a debate between Clinton and Obama on February 26 at the Wolstein Center on the campus of Cleveland State University.
[58] Clinton and Obama appeared at the Compassion Forum, discussing faith, values, and religion on April 13, 2008, at 8PM EDT at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
The forum was a question-and-answer session in which CNN commentator Campbell Brown and Jon Meacham of Newsweek as well as select members of the audience, posed questions about faith and politics to Clinton and Obama.
Both Clinton and Obama appeared in a debate moderated by ABC News on April 16, 2008, at 8 PM EDT at the National Constitution Center.
[65] Some of the questions that many viewers said they considered irrelevant when measured against the faltering economy or the Iraq war, like why Senator Barack Obama did not wear an American flag pin on his lapel, the incendiary comments of Obama's former pastor, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion that she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia more than a decade ago.
