Will the CPD Ever Announce the 2008 Presidential Debates?
The Commission on Presidential Debates is set to announce the "real debates" for the fall of 2008 by the end of October. The announcement of hosts has been rumored for over a month now, but the commission continues site visits and remains silent. I cannot find an announcement date and only vague time frames in media coverage. Their web site is astonishingly moribund, still featuring applications to host for 2008.
Media interest apparently has also all but disappeared. Finding a news story handicapping the selection process is tough. Essentially they don't exit. Everything else political receives ample speculation but not the Commission's work.
: presidential debates, commission on presidential debates, announcements, 2008 debates
The CPD has published the list of applicants, numbering seventeen. They range from the traditional institutions of higher education to conglomerates like the
Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, Richmond VA and the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission in Portland.
The one potential host that has received media coverage is a group in New Orleans, the Women of the Storm , founded in January 2006 to remind Congress of the destruction Katrina brought on New Orleans. Political implications generate some press. As Annie Milling, founder of the organization told the Washington Times "A presidential debate would ignite our tourist industry and show the country, and the world, that we're open." Surely there will be pressures to select New Orleans (if only Edwards could be the nominee).
Other stories are of the local variety rooting on the home town host. In Winston-Salem were obviously backing Wake Forest University's bid to host its third presidential debate. CPD are you out there?
Bids for the three presidential and one vice-president debate in 2008 are:
- Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.
- Centre College, Danville, Ky.
- Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County, Ind.
- Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
- Indiana University and the City of Bloomington's Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission, Portland, Ore., and Clark College, Vancouver, Wash.
- State of Illinois (Lakeside Center/McCormick Place, Chicago)
- University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Ark.
- University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Ohio
- University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.
- University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.
- VisitPittsburgh, Pa.
- Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
- Washington State University, Spokane, Wash.
- Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
- Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
- Women of the Storm, Dillard, Loyola, Tulane and Xavier universities, New Orleans, La.
