Join us in the comments below as we liveblog tonight's debate (on MSNBC) from Cleveland State University.
My prediction: fewer fireworks than predicted.
Obama will point out how much they agree (as Clinton did months ago) and being seated so close to one another will defuse tension.
Join us in the comments as we liveblog tonight's debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Below, in chronological order is the complete debate about more debates (which has, obviously, turned into something else entirely) as played out on the Wisconsin airwaves. Obama has responded quickly to each attack and both campaigns have hewed to their respective narratives. Opening salvo from Hillary: Reply from Obama: Other ads below fold
With a Democrat favored to win the White House in November and just this one debate between the two remaining Democratic hopefuls, a woman and a black man, there arguably may not be a single debate that has had more historic significance.
Kennedy/Nixon may be your quick reply. Yes, in retrospect, that is true. Interesting, too, since Obama has been anointed Kennedy's successor.
Surely this has sunk in for the candidates. Let's hope Wolf Blitzer and CNN treat the event with the dignity and significance it potentially has.
As for the candidates, join me in the comments to see whether they rise to the occasion. For in the end, it is they, two unique and powerful figures, who can prove me right or wrong on my pre-debate take.
Nearly nine months ago I previewed the "GOP Debate Debut in the Shadow of Reagan," as ten candidates were vying to inherit Reagan's mantle.
Tonight, the same scene, the Reagan Library in Simi, California, with Air Force One as the dramatic backdrop, has fewer actors and the script now has one of them, John McCain cast as the front-runner.
McCain reminds voters that he was a "foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution" by way of asserting his conservative bona fides.
Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul have one last chance to debate the merits of McCain's claim.
In the comments I will liveblog their efforts and John McCain's debut as the candidate with the right to invoke Reagan's 11th commandment, "Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican."
The debate airs live on CNN the web at 8pm ET, is moderated by Anderson Cooper, and co-sponsored by Politico.com. You can go to politico to submit questions and to vote for questions.
You can prepare yourself for watching the debate by reading David William's excellent compilation of tips for watching.
Join us in the comments for liveblogging of tonight's GOP presidential primary debate from Boca Raton, Florida, held five days before Tuesday's primary there.
The debate starts at 9 pm ET on MSNBC and can also be viewed at MSNBC's website.
The five remaining candidates (Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, and Romney) will be questioned by moderator Brian Williams, NBC's Tim Russert, and St. Petersburg Times editor, Paul Tash.
In the comments we'll be looking for signs of desperation from Rudy (who had told Russert and the world that Florida was his firewall) and for an escalation in the Romney/McCain competition for front runner status.
GOP hopefuls Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson square off in their third debate in six days at 9 pm tonight from Myrtle Beach, SC, on FOX News Network (on cable and streamed by FoxNews.com which has a preview.
We'll use the comments on this thread to record live reactions if my internet connection here in Texas keeps working and if the FOX stream works. I'm at a Radisson which features both balky internet access and a cable package that does not include Fox News.
The debate should be closely watched in not only in South Carolina, but also in Michigan where Romney is trying to hang on to his chances after having pulled ads in South Carolina and Florida. McCain is challenging in both places. Fred Thompson is making his last stand in South Carolina and Mike Huckabee leads there and is still rising in many polls of many states.
Rudy Giuliani is polling just ahead of Ron Paul and needs to remain relevant. Ron Paul might get questions tonight about his racist pamphleteering from the 1990's.
With McCain acting like the new front runner, or at least the "establishment" candidate, it will be interesting to see whether or not Thompson, Romney, and Huckabee triple team McCain much as Romney was ganged up on in New Hampshire.
Join me in comments or just live blog it without me should I lose contact . . .
GOP candidates shown shaking hands with Dem candidates as the former leave and the latter enter. Audience gives sustained applause.
GOP version of this proved candidates can and will mix it up when left to own devices but less so when moderator asks them to do so. Romney was clobbered.
Join me in the comments for play by play . . .
Update [2008-1-5 18:51:5 by Ross Smith]: Liveblogs of tonight's debates are in the two posts just below. Join me there.
Just three days until the pivotal primary in New Hampshire two debates on ABC tonight and one on FOX News tomorrow night may play a role in the outcome.
The double header on ABC begins with the GOP (Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, Romney, Thompson) at 7 pm ET for 90 minutes followed just as quickly as they can rotate audiences by the Democrats (Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson). These debates can also be seen at co-sponsor WMUR's website.
The FOX News debate, best known so far for its exclusion of Ron Paul, will air at 8pm ET Sunday night and will be replayed on FOX News at 11 pm.
Click "Read more" for a complete preview, including discussion of the participation criteria, formats, and speculation about the course the debates will take and the effect they may (or may not) have.
Update [2007-12-13 12:56:14 by Ross Smith]: Lest you think we exaggerate, I just found this:
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My last liveblog comment was, "Awful. Just Awful." Steve called the debate "Less Than Earthshaking."
But DebateScoop's criticism was muted compared to that elsewhere. The extremely harsh reactions might be due to the fact that the expectations and stakes were high. These debates are, after all, the last debates before the Iowa caucuses, races in both parties are up for grabs, and the results may well determine who the next President of the United States is.
Whatever the reason, this debate had the worst reviews of any we have seen since DebateScoop was founded in August of 2006.
The first problem was that this event had too little give and take to merit being called a debate. Even the Des Moines Register's David Yepsin did not spare his own colleagues on that score:
"The biggest problem with the debate was that it wasn't really a debate. Candidates got almost no opportunity to grill one another. Often they ran out of time and were cut off just as they started to probe an opponent.The event would have been more nourishing had the format allowed for more back-and-forth."
Dean Barnett of the Weekly Standard is not as measured as the home town colleague:
I'm sure there are people in Iowa who could capably moderate a presidential debate. Unfortunately, and obviously, Carolyn Washburn is not one of them.The bulk of the post-debate analysis will probably focus on how maladroit Washburn was at the job. She did the impossible--she moderated the last Iowa debate between the Republican candidates before caucuses and yet saw to it that none of the candidates engaged each other. In other words, the moderator ensured that the debate would be as lively as a 12 part PBS series on "How Grass Grows."
A personal aside to the Des Moines Register--"boring" is not synonymous with "serious."
The problems went beyond Washburn's lack of mad moderating skillz. From the outset, Washburn announced that the candidates would not be discussing either Iraq or immigration. Swell! It's the biggest debate of the season, so let's take the two biggest issues off the table. For what it's worth, Washburn brought all the charm to her assignment of a latter-day Nurse Ratched.
Whether from left, right or center, from blogger or mainstream journalist, the reactions to the format, moderator, questions, and resultant "debate" tended to be closer to Barnett's than to Yepsin's. "Highlights" are in the extended entry.
Update [2007-12-12 13:45:3 by Ross Smith]: Actually two updates. One, look in the space just below this post for the liveblog of today's debate. Two, The New York Times Magazine piece on Huckabee (originally scheduled for Sunday) in which he "innocently" asked about Mormons and Satan is now up.
Today and tomorrow at 1 pm CST debates with potentially "seismic impact" will be held for the presidential contenders, the Republicans today and the Democrats tomorrow. Even if the Des Moines Register's "seismic" overstates the impact of the debates they are hosting, as the last debates before the fast approaching holidays and the January 3 Iowa caucus these primary debates do have added importance, especially in the context of the fact that neither party now has a clear front runner for the nomination.
AP provides the basic details:
Sponsored by Iowa Public Television and The Des Moines Register, the two debates will be held in Johnston, Iowa, and broadcast live at 2 p.m. EST on Iowa Public Television, CNN, C-SPAN3, Fox News Channel, C-SPAN Radio and Fox News Radio.
Even though it's an afternoon debate, there will be rebroadcasts and over 200 news organizations are covering the debates, so the "earned media" effect should be huge.
The leading narrative for today's debate is that there is now be a target on Huckabee's back as he has taken the lead in Iowa and is rapidly surging nationally. Read below the fold for more details about the format, participants, and expected dynamic of today's debate. I'll have a preview focused on the Democrats tomorrow.
Just click "Discuss" and join me in the comments . . .
Update [2007-12-9 20:35:16 by Ross Smith]: The candidates spoke in English which was translated into Spanish and that was then translated into closed caption English for the monolingaul English speaker like me. The result was humorous at time. Eventually, I just gave in and used humorous summary to communicate the gist of the gist as best I could understand it.
Read the comments below to see this "progression" as the debate went on.
Update [2007-12-9 21:19:18 by Ross Smith]: In the end there was almost no clash at all, with only Ron Paul disagreeing with anyone. Either it was the format and we'll have to wait until Wednesday's debate in Des Moines, or all of these guys thought attacking one another was backfiring.
Originally scheduled for September but postponed indefinitely after John McCain was the only leading Republican candidate to agree to participate, tonight's GOP Univision debate, hosted by the University of Miami, airs live from 7-9 pm on Univision cable channels as well as at the Univision website.
The format is conventional in that Univision news anchors will moderate and ask candidates questions on a range of issues. But the questions will be asked in Spanish, then translated into English for the candidates. The candidates will respond in English but the television and web audience will hear the Spanish translation of the answers. Folks like me, who cannot understand Spanish, can use the closed captioning feature on their televisions to read the English. English speakers in the live audience can wear headsets if they need the English version.
The Democratic Univision debate attracted an audience of 2.2 million television viewers, a far higher percentage of the Spanish speaking audience than the percentage of English speakers who watch the "traditional" debates on other cable networks.
The political context for tonight's debate includes this week's Pew Hispanic Center poll that finds "there is now a 34-percentage-point gap in partisan affiliation among Latinos. In July 2006, the same gap measured just 21 percentage points," reverberations of the CNN/YouTube debate that began with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney questioning each other's anti-immigrant credentials, the rise of Mike Huckabee (in part attributed to his ability to rise above the negative tone of his rivals), and the locale itself, a swing state with a Cuban population that has favored Republicans.
Details are below the fold . . .
Update [2007-12-4 19:29:28 by Ross Smith]: You can listen to selected clips or the entire debate at NPR's site here.
The Democratic candidates for president will debate today on NPR from 2 to 4 EST. This is the one and only (so far) radio-only debate. Details of the format are in this press release. You can listen live on your local NPR station or at their website, and at NPR.org. Additionally, the press release notes:
The first broadcast of the debate will be exclusive to NPR Member stations around the country; many stations will also rebroadcast it that evening and in other time periods. The debate will also air on Sirius Satellite Radio, in more than 150 countries through NPR Worldwide Service and on American Forces Radio reaching U.S. military around the world. The debate will be streamed lived on NPR.org and numerous Member stations' websites. Following the initial exclusive broadcast and webcast, NPR will make the recording fully accessible to all media outlets and individuals, without license restrictions; it will also be available for permanent on-demand streaming at NPR.org and via NPR Member stations' sites.
Since the days of Marshall McLuhan and the first Kennedy/Nixon debate, scholars and pundits have discussed the difference the medium makes. If time permits I'll post some cites to research on that subject.
Meanwhile, use the comments on this thread (click "Discuss")to discuss this debate, the format, and your reactions as you listen.
[Update] Liveblogging the Brown and Black Forum in the thread below. Join us for comments on the off chance you get the Sirius feed or have HDNET.
Update [2007-12-1 15:12:8 by Ross Smith]: Happening as I type, the "Heartland Presidential Forum" which is "not a debate" but is a three hour forum with the Democratic candidates being interviewed for 20 minutes each. Stream and preview. Long day for the Dems.
Tonight's "Black and Brown Presidential Forum" in Iowa is the second of a flurry of five debates in the thirteen days that began with Wednesday's GOP CNN/YouTube debate.
The DesMoines Register reports the basics of tonight's event which has been held quadrennially starting in 1984:
This year's edition will be at 7 p.m. [CST] at North High School in Des Moines, and will be telecast live nationally by HDNet, a high-definition television network. It will be simulcast in Iowa and surrounding states by cable company Mediacom's "Connections" channel. Sirius satellite radio also will carry it.
The forum moderators will be Michele Norris, host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" newsmagazine, and Ray Suarez, a senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS.
In addition, newsman Dan Rather, who appeared with Ford and Campos, will be the host of a preview show on HDNet half an hour before the forum begins, and will conduct an analysis of it afterward.
The debate schedule continues Tuesday, November 4 from 1-3pm CST with NPR's radio debate for Democrats.
The following week begins with the GOP Univision Debate Sunday, December 9 at the University of Miami (Florida). That debate, broadcast in Spanish and focused on issues of concern to Hispanics, was canceled earlier in the year when most of the GOP contenders refused to commit to it.
Wednesday and Thursday, December 12 and 13, the Republican and then the Democratic candidates will participate in debates sponsored by the Des Moines Register. These debates were originally to be held in early January, but were moved up when the Iowa caucuses were moved to January 3.
Democratic candidates were also scheduled to debate in Los Angeles on December 10 in a nationally televised debate on CBS which was canceled because of a strike by CBS news writers.
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