So, You're Planning A Presidential Debate ?

After a wild news week, I completely forgot the 1st presidential debate even happened. BUT, like it or not, we are still knee-deep in the shit until the November election. 

Most who watched the first debates were left wondering … if the candidates are going to talk over each other and out of turn, what's the point of having a debate? Can we mute microphones? or maybe better yet, just cancel the debates?

These debates are mutually agreed upon, and 100% voluntary for the candidates. After JFK waxed Nixon in the 1960 debate for looking old and gross on TV, Nixon stayed out of the debates in the next two elections and won both elections. Since 1976 (after Nixon) every major party candidate has voluntarily participated in the debates behind the idea that it will be beneficial to their victory. 

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From 1960-1988 the debates were put on by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters with the main goal of informing voters. The LWV won an Emmy for the 1976 Presidential Debate even though the audio went out for 27 minutes while Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter awkwardly swayed behind their podiums before the problem was fixed. Barstool difference. 

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In 1988 the Commission on Presidential Debates took over the show to give you the debate setup you are now familiar with. The CPD is an independent non-profit created by republican and democratic leaders to work out the details of the debates. Location, moderator, crowd, you name it and they control it. The CPD debates tended to be less informative and more about The Show. The CPD streamlined the debates and gave us rules like no equal time requirements, no follow-up questions (where the bulk of unrehearsed answers come from), and formats like the Town Hall Debate (1992).

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Tonight might seem lackluster compared to the Presidential debate, but some of the best moments come from the Vice Presidential debate. In 1992, third-party Vice Presidential candidate Admiral James Stockdale was informed LAST SECOND by his presidential running mate, Ross Perot, he would be on national tv debating against Al Gore and Dan Quayle. Admiral Stockdale described being stuck between the two candidates to a game of ping pong. When Stockdale did speak at the debate, he made it count …

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Hosting the debate has become so beneficial to a small university's brand that schools are willing to pay MASSIVE amounts of money. The host of the upcoming presidential debate on Sunday, Washington University in St-Louis, forked over $5 million to be involved. $2 million of that total will go directly to the Commission on Presidential Debates whose job it is to keep the whole thing going.

More Presidential debate facts from Large and I on the most recent episode of Twisted History … Download. Rate. Review.