[5] Subsequently, on October 3, both campaigns executed a memorandum of understanding governing technical and administrative details of the debate.

[6] The agreement describes the role of the moderator, rules applicable to each debate, staging and seating arrangements, and ticket distribution, and was signed by Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg, general counsel of the Obama and Romney campaigns, respectively.

The first, moderated by Larry King and organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, took place on October 23 between Rocky Anderson, Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein.

[7] Stein and Johnson were selected using instant-runoff voting for a second Free and Equal debate, which was hosted by RT and took place on November 5.

[8][9] Ralph Nader hosted and moderated a debate between Anderson, Stein, Goode, and Johnson on November 4.

[18] The segments were on the economy and job creation, the federal deficit, entitlements and differences between the candidates on Social Security, health care and the Affordable Care Act, the role and mission of the federal government of the United States, and governing in a presidential system and dealing with gridlock.

[24][25] Several independent fact checkers noted that a number of factual discrepancies were found in various statements made by both Obama and Romney in the debate.

"[29] The performance of Jim Lehrer as the moderator was widely criticized for frequently allowing the candidates to speak over their time limits.

Fox News wrote, "The only consolation President Barack Obama had for his poor showing during Wednesday's debate was that moderator Jim Lehrer did even worse.

[35] The foreign policy segments included questions on the attack on the American consulate in Libya, Iran, the civil war in Syria, and Afghanistan.

The domestic policy segments included questions on health care, abortion, the national debt, Social Security, Medicare, and taxes.

[41][42] The second presidential debate took place on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, at New York's Hofstra University, and was moderated by Candy Crowley of CNN.

The discussion of the 2012 Benghazi attack produced an exchange known for the phrase Please proceed, governor, later described by Frank Rich as hilarious,[70] and covered by Jon Stewart at The Daily Show.

The end of that exchange was a comment by moderator Candy Crowley where she affirmed the facts of Obama's statement, referring to a transcript of his speech.

"[73] In his Rose Garden closing remarks, the President had said in part, "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.

"[74] The third and final presidential debate took place on Monday, October 22, 2012, at Florida's Lynn University, and was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS.

[76] A CNN poll of debate watchers found that 48% of respondents called Obama the winner, 40% called Romney the winner, and 12% had no opinion or thought they tied; CNN noted that the debate audience polled was about five percentage points more Republican than the general population.

The Free and Equal Elections Foundation organized a debate featuring third-party candidates Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Virgil Goode and Rocky Anderson, which was held in Chicago at 9:00pm EDT on October 23, 2012.

[7] Veteran broadcaster Larry King of Ora.TV served as moderator for the debate,[90] which was streamed live online.

[95] The questions were: The Free and Equal Elections Foundation conducted a post-debate poll to determine which candidates would progress to their second debate.

[97] Ralph Nader hosted and moderated a debate that took place on November 4, 2012, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., between 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.[98] Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson and Jill Stein participated.

[9] The candidates that participated were those that won the instant-runoff vote after the previous debate – Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.