United States presidential debates

The formats of the debates have varied, with questions sometimes posed from one or more journalist moderators and in other cases members of the audience.

[4] A record-breaking audience of over 84 million people watched the first 2016 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a number that does not reflect online streaming.

[6][7] The Democrats followed suit in 1956 with a televised presidential primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver,[8][9] and in 1960 by one between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

[10] In 1956, during the 1956 presidential campaign, University of Maryland student Fred Kahn led an effort to bring the two major presidential candidates, Adlai Stevenson II, the Democratic nominee, and President Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican nominee, to the campus for a debate.

[11] Various newspapers were contacted and numerous letters were sent in an effort to generate interest and garner support for the proposal.

Roosevelt said that she was going to forward Kahn's letter to James Finnegan, Adlai Stevenson's campaign manager.

[11] The first general election presidential debate was 1960 United States presidential debates, held on September 26, 1960, between Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, and Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, at CBS's WBBM-TV in Chicago.

At the outset, Nixon was considered to have the upper hand due to his knowledge of foreign policy and proficiency in radio debates.

Many observers have regarded Kennedy's win[neutrality is disputed] over Nixon in the first debate as a turning point in the election.

Nixon regained his lost weight, wore television makeup, and appeared more forceful than in his initial appearance, winning the second and third debates while the fourth was a draw,[neutrality is disputed] however the viewership numbers of these subsequent events did not match the high set by the first debate and ultimately did not help Nixon as he lost the election.

[17] Roughly an hour into the first televised debate, the broadcast audio coming from the Walnut Street Theatre and fed to all networks suddenly cut out, effectively muting the candidates in the middle of a statement by Carter.

The two candidates were initially unaware of this technical glitch and continued to debate, unheard to the television audience.

Ford had already cut into Carter's large lead in the polls, and was generally viewed as having won the first debate on domestic policy.

Three debates between Carter, former California Governor Ronald Reagan and Illinois Congressman John B. Anderson (who was running as an independent), were originally scheduled; along with a single vice presidential debate between incumbent Walter Mondale, former CIA Director George Bush, and former Wisconsin Governor Patrick Joseph Lucey.

With years of experience in front of a camera as an actor, Reagan came across much better than Carter in the debate and was judged by voters to have won by a wide margin.

The Reagan campaign had access to internal debate briefing materials for Carter; the exposure of this in 1983 led to a public scandal called "Debategate".

The second presidential debate was held on October 21, 1984, where Ronald Reagan used a joke, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign.

Quayle's selection by the incumbent vice-president and Republican presidential candidate George Bush was widely criticized; one reason being his relative lack of experience.

In the debate, Quayle attempted to ease this fear by stating that he had as much experience as John F. Kennedy did when he ran for president in 1960.

Moderators of nationally televised presidential debates have included Bernard Shaw, Bill Moyers, Jim Lehrer, and Barbara Walters.

On October 2, 1988, the LWV's 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release:[26] 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.

Others criticize the parallel interview format as a minimum of getting 15 percent in opinion polls of the CPD's choosing is required to be invited.