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The 2004 United States Presidential Election Debates are another in a regular series of presidential debates first held during the 1960 presidential election and held every four years since the 1976 presidential election.
Both the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) and the Citizens' Debate Commission are sponsoring presidential debates in 2004. See the general article on American presidential debates for more information about sponsorship of the debates.
Commission on Presidential Debates
Participant selection criteria
According to the CPD's website, the criteria for selecting candidates to participate in its 2004 presidential debates are based on evidence of eligibility (as defined in Article Two of the United States Constitution), evidence of ballot access, and evidence of electoral support based on national public opinion polls. Participants must be on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority in the 2004 presidential election. Participants must have the support of at least 15% of the national electorate, based on the average of five "selected" national public opinion polling organizations. The CPD will apply these criteria in advance of each scheduled presidential debate.
Invitations to the CPD's vice-presidential debate will be extended to the running mates of the candidates participating in the first presidential debate.
On September 24, the CPD announced that only President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry met the CPD selection criteria for the first presidential debate.
Schedule
Three presidential debates have been scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates:
- September 30 at the University of Miami, with questions from moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS;
- October 8 at Washington University in St. Louis, in a town-hall format moderated by Charles Gibson of ABC;
- October 13 at Arizona State University, with questions from moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS.
One vice-presidential debate is scheduled:
Originally, the CPD specified that the first debate would be focused on domestic policy and the third focused on foreign policy. Those terms were changed in an announcement by the CPD on September 24, after it had reviewed the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Bush campaign and Kerry campaign from September 20. The CPD agreed that foreign affairs and homeland security will be the primary topic for the first debate, and domestic and economic policy will be the primary topic of the third debate. More broadly, it also agreed to make a "good faith effort" to accommodate the rest of the terms of the 32-page MOU.
The September 24th announcement, which was released in the format of a copy of a letter sent to the two campaigns, also noted CPD's pleasure at the willingness of the two campaigns to participate in the second, "town meeting"-style debate, yet was ambiguous about just what had been agreed to.
Originally, the CPD had announced that questions for the second debate would come from undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization from the standard metropolitan statistical area surrounding the host city. This had been the policy followed for the 1992, 1996, and 2000 debates. But the September 24 letter to the two candidates did not comment on this; instead, it noted that campaign representatives can discuss participant selection methodology with Dr. Frank Newport of Gallup in order to resolve any open issues. One such issue was that the MOU specified that half the questions be asked by "soft Kerry supporters" and half by "soft Bush supporters", though what is meant by those terms was not made clear.
Format
For 2004, each debate lasts ninety minutes, includes a live audience, is without opening statements, may include follow-up questions from the moderator and ends with two-minute-long closing statements.
Transcripts and video streams
- 2004 U.S. Presidential Debate - September 30
Debate responses
As of September 30 2004, only one debate has been held, focusing on foreign policy. A Gallup poll conducted following the debate among 615 registered voters found that 53 percent felt Kerry had done better than Bush, while those who were of the opposite opinion amounted to 37 percent. 46 percent said they had a more favorable opinion of Kerry after the debate, compared to 21 percent for Bush. [1] (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041001-9999-1n1assess.html)
Citizens' Debate Commission
Participant selection criteria
The Citizens' Debate Commission employs criteria developed by the Appleseed Citizens' Task Force on Fair Debates, a project of the Appleseed Electoral Reform Project at American University's Washington College of Law.
The Appleseed Task Force criteria includes all candidates on enough state ballots to win an electoral college majority who either 1) register at five percent in national polls or 2) register a majority in national polls asking eligible voters which candidates they would like to see included in the presidential debates.
The Appleseed criteria attempts to ensure that popular third party challengers are allowed to participate without drowning out the voices of the two leading contenders for the presidency. In 1984 and 1988, only the major party candidates fulfilled the Appleseed criteria; in 1996 and 1992, only Ross Perot and the major party candidates managed to meet the Appleseed threshold; and in 2000, only Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan and the major party candidates satisfied the criteria.
The Citizens' Debate Commission claims that the two prongs of the Appleseed criteria that trigger inclusion, five percent and majority support, are rooted in democratic principles and federal law. The five percent threshold matches the public financing threshold for minor parties, which is the only legislative standard for measuring the viability of non-major parties. Elected officials codified five percent in the Federal Election Campaign Act, and taxpayers finance candidates whose parties attract five percent of the popular vote.
Schedule
The Citizens' Debate Commission proposed five 90-minute presidential debates and one 90-minute vice-presidential debate. Six colleges and universities were selected to serve as hosts:
- Capital University, in Columbus, OH on Wednesday, September 22nd.
- Swarthmore College, in Swarthmore, PA on Tuesday, September 28th.
- Canisius College, in Buffalo, NY on Sunday, October 3rd.
- Willamette University, in Salem, OR on Thursday, October 7th -- Vice-Presidential Debate.
- Carleton College, in Northfield, MN on Monday, October 11th.
- Nova Southeastern University, in Fort Lauderdale, FL on Friday, October 15th.
As of September 25, the deadline for the first debate has passed without any debate being held.
Format
The Citizens' Debate Commission advocates the following format stipulations for future presidential debates:
- Follow-up questions must be permitted in every debate.
- At least one debate must include candidate-to-candidate questioning.
- At least two debates must include rebuttals and surrebuttals.
- Response times must not be overly restrictive.
- Candidates may only exercise a limited number of vetoes concerning the selection of moderators and panelists.
The Citizens' Debate Commission also proposes the following four basic formats for future presidential debates:
- Two single moderator debates.
- Authentic town-hall debate.
- Youth debate.
- Panel debate.
Related debates
- January 29 - Former Green Party presidential nomination candidate and current independent vice-presidential candidate Peter Camejo debated Normon Solomon at the Crest Theatre, in downtown Sacramento, regarding what direction the Green Party should take in 2004. Camejo supported Ralph Nader, even as an independent candidate, and hoped that Nader could be persuaded to run with the Green Party. Solomon said that Nader should not run, and that the Greens should work to defeat George W. Bush (Republican). The debate was a benefit for listener-sponsored KVMR radio (http://www.kvmr.org/).
- July 9 - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader debated former Democratic presidential nomination candidate Howard Dean on the state of elections. The debate was sponsored by Justice Talking (http://www.justicetalking.org/), and can be viewed here (http://www.justicetalking.org/viewprogram.asp?progID=452).
- August 31 - Michael Badnarik (Libertarian), David Cobb (Green), and Michael Peroutka (Constitution) debated in New York City. George W. Bush (Republican), John Kerry (Democrat), and Ralph Nader (independent) were invited to debate, but none of them accepted. The debate was moderated by Rob Richie, Executive Director of the Center for Voting and Democracy (http://www.fairvote.org/), and Walter Kane, a reporter for Channel 12 News. C-SPAN televised the debate on September 6.
- September 30 - Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) and David Cobb (Green) debated at 5 pm in Miami, across the street from the Bush-Kerry debate, which began at 9 pm. Unlike Bush and Kerry, Badnarik and Cobb took unscripted questions from the audience and from correspondents. The event was carried live by the Pacifica Radio Network.
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