(This will be long and boring, just like a debate, so bear with me)
The Debates
- April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina
- June 3, 2007 – Manchester, New Hampshire
- June 28, 2007 – Washington, D.C.
- July 12, 2007 – Detroit, Michigan
- July 23, 2007 – Charleston, South Carolina
- August 4, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois
- August 7, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois
- August 9, 2007 – Los Angeles, California
- August 19, 2007 – Des Moines, Iowa
- September 9, 2007 – Coral Gables, Florida
- September 20, 2007 – Davenport, Iowa
- September 26, 2007 – Hanover, New Hampshire
- October 30, 2007 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- November 15, 2007 – Las Vegas, Nevada
- December 4, 2007 - Des Moines, Iowa
- December 13, 2007 – Johnston, Iowa
- January 5, 2008 – Manchester, New Hampshire
- January 15, 2008 - Las Vegas, Nevada
- January 21, 2008 - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- January 31, 2008 – Hollywood, California
- February 2, 2008 - MTV Myspace Debate
Tentative:
- February 21, 2008 - Austin, Texas
- February 26, 2008 - Cleveland, Ohio
The April 26th debate:
[edit] April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina
The first Democratic debate was in the evening of April 26, 2007, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, at South Carolina State University. State party chairman Joe Erwin said that he chose South Carolina State because it is a historically black college, noting that African-Americans have been the "most loyal" Democrats in the state.[6] The debate was 90 minutes with a 60-second time limit for answers, and no opening or closing statements.[7] It was broadcast via cable television and online video streaming by MSNBC.[8]
The debate was moderated by Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News. Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire sent two students to cover the debate on location who gained spin room access.
The major issue discussed was the Iraq War, with all candidates strongly criticizing President George W. Bush.[7] Although there was some initial hype,[9] the debate was seen by pundits as unspectacular, with no single "breakout" candidate.[9][10] A poll of 403 South Carolina debate watchers indicated that they believed Senator Barack Obama won the debate with 31% to Clinton's 24%. [11] However, Tom Baldwin of The Times and Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian both reported that Clinton appeared to retain her frontrunner status.[12]
Political pundits such as Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough declared that Clinton was the most "presidential", in that her appearance and answers were succinct, within the time limit and thorough, leaving no second-guesses. They effectively called her the winner.
With regards to the solid third-polled candidate Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), pundits varied, with some asserting that his performance was weak and not the usual energetic performance that he portrayed in 2003, when he first ran. Howard Fineman also opined that questions regarding his $400 haircut and his "Two Americas" theme are under fire because of severe discrepancies, threatening his main campaign theme.
June 3rd debate:
WMUR-TV, CNN, and the New Hampshire Union Leader hosted both Democratic and Republican debates in Manchester, New Hampshire, at Saint Anselm College. The Democratic debate was Sunday, June 3, starting at 7 PM EDT and lasting two hours, commercial free. The moderator was Wolf Blitzer, host of Late Edition and The Situation Room.[13] He was joined by Tom Fahey of The Union Leader and Scott Spralding from the local NH television station WMUR. The first half of the debate was a directed question and answer, with candidates at podiums, as in the first debate, responding to questions from Fahey and Spralding.[14] [15] [16]
For the second half, candidates sat in chairs, while audience members in New Hampshire, mostly undecided Democratic and independent voters, asked questions which were then deflected by Wolf Blitzer to specific candidates.
June 28th debate:
PBS held and televised a debate at Howard University, a historically black college. The moderator was Tavis Smiley. All eight candidates discussed various topics including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community.[17][18] The debate drew a record crowd of who's who celebrities such as Harry Belafonte, Al Sharpton, Dorothy Heights, Jesse Jackson, Terry McMillan, Judge Hatchett, Mark Ridley-Thomas, amongst other celebrities.[citation needed] This was the first debate to give equal time to all the candidates. The earlier debates were heavily biased towards three candidates.
July 12th debate:
Attended by all eight candidates.
This was held during the NAACP convention. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton were overheard -- on stage, over microphones -- talking about weeding out non-frontrunner candidates from participating in future debates
July 23rd debate:
CNN and YouTube held this debate on the campus of The Citadel. All questions were selected from, and posed as videos submitted via, YouTube by members of the public; the debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper of Anderson Cooper 360. YouTube and Google streamed the event live.[20] It was also simulcast on CNN en Español.
YearlyKos, August 4th
The Yearly Kos Presidential Leadership Forum was an informal discussion attended by seven of the eight presidential candidates, with Biden not attending due to votes in Congress. New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai and DailyKos Contributing Editor and Fellow Joan McCarter moderated. The debate was broken down into Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Philosophy and Leadership. Candidates were alloted 90 seconds for each question with 45 second rebuttals, although the time limits were not strictly enforced. After the debate, breakout sessions were held where convention goers could question each candidate individually.
August 7th debate
The AFL-CIO Working Families Vote Presidential Forum was held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois in front of approximately 15,000 union members and their families. The questions in the debate will be used to determine if and whom the AFL-CIO will endorse in the Democratic primary. MSNBC host Keith Olbermann hosted the debate, which featured seven of the candidates. Mike Gravel was excluded because he failed to submit a written questionnaire by the August 6 deadline. Gravel claimed that the questionnaire "fell through the cracks" and requested to be invited to the debate anyway, which was rejected by the AFL-CIO. Questionnaires were also sent to Republicans but no candidates responded.
August 9th debate
LGBT network Logo hosted this debate focusing on LGBT issues, moderated by Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and singer Melissa Etheridge. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel participated. Mike Gravel was originally to be excluded from this debate, it being cited that his campaign had not raised enough money to qualify for participation. Rallying from Gravel's supporters reversed this decision. Dodd and Biden both stated scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. Logo invited the Republicans presidential candidates to a similar debate, but all the candidates declined.
August 19th debate
ABC News in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party held a debate streamed on This Week moderated by George Stephanopoulos.[23] ABC has been accused of spinning the results of the debate due to extreme differences in the time alloted to candidates. ABC also deleted poll results when they showed Dennis Kucinich in the lead.
September 9th debate
Univision hosted a forum, Destino 2008, in Spanish at the University of Miami's Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida and moderated by Univision's anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas.[24] [25] Joe Biden did not participate in the debate.
Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd objected to the debate being conducted in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish. Both are fluent in Spanish but it was perceived to cause an unfair advantage for the two. The TV audience of 2.2 million was also the debate season's youngest, at an average of 36 years old.
September 20th debate
PBS held a forum focused on domestic issues, specifically health care and financial security. It was moderated by Judy Woodruff, and was a joint venture between IPTV and AARP.[28] Obama rejected PBS's invitation, and Gravel and Kucinich were excluded from the debate because they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.
September 26th debate
MSNBC held a debate at Dartmouth College in conjunction with New England Cable News and New Hampshire Public Radio.[29] The moderator was Tim Russert.
October 30th debate
The debate was held at Drexel University and was televised by NBC News. All candidates except former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel attended the debate. It was announced on October 19th that Senator Gravel did not meet the polling requirements for the debate, though the DNC did not specifically say what the requirements were; Gravel has suggested that GE, which owns NBC and is a "war-profiteer," conspired to exclude him from the event after, during the previous debate, he questioned Hillary Clinton's signing a resolution that would possibly facilitate entering war with Iran. Instead of attending the debate, Senator Gravel staged an event at the nearby World Cafe Live.[30]
Seven Democratic presidential candidates participated in a two-hour debate starting at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) and telecast on MSNBC and streamed live on msnbc.com.[31] The moderators of the debate were Tim Russert and Brian Williams.
Democratic rivals focused their attacks on Senator Clinton, and were particularly critical of her response to a proposal from New York Governor Eliot L. Spitzer which would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.[32] After the debate, moderator Tim Russert was criticized for asking a misleading question to Senator Clinton regarding the release of her records as first lady. Tim Russert raised the issue of a letter which Bill Clinton wrote in which the former president ordered "a ban" on the release of his records by the National Archives. However, it was later revealed that Tim Russert misrepresented the letter, as it turns out that President Clinton was actually requesting for the National Archives to speed up the release of the records, despite the National Archive's backlog.
November 15th debate
The Nevada Democratic Party hosted a Democratic debate aired on CNN. The moderator was Wolf Blitzer. Former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel was excluded from the debate[35], and so held a debate alternative, online at www.ustream.tv where a TiVo system is used to screen the official debate simultaneously. According to Nielsen Media Research, the debate drew a record Cable TV audience for a presidential primary debate, an estimated 4.04 million viewers.[36]
The candidates present at the debate were Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and John Edwards.
Some commentators have attacked CNN for the debate, calling it biased and poorly handled. Their accusations include claims that the final audience question was planted,[37] that moderator Wolf Blizter was overly favorable to Hillary Clinton, and that the use of James Carville, a long-time adviser to the Clintons, as a debate commentator was biased.[38] It has also been claimed that some of the "undecided voters" showcased by CNN during the debate had ties to the Democratic party.[39]
December 4th debate
National Public Radio, in conjunction with Iowa Public Radio, hosted a "radio-only" Democratic Debate. NPR hosts Steve Inskeep, Michele Norris, and Robert Siegel moderated the debate. The debate broadcasted from the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines to NPR stations around the country and was streamed online. All of the major candidates were present other than New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson who was attending the funeral of a Korean war casualty.
Senators Obama and Edwards were given the most speaking time; Senator Gravel, the least.
December 13th debate
The Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television hosted a Democratic debate in Johnston, Iowa. Six of the eight candidates were invited. Dennis Kucinich was excluded because he had not rented office space in the state. The Register determined "that a person working out of his home did not meet our criteria for a campaign office and full-time paid staff in Iowa." Mike Gravel was excluded for presumably the same reason.[40]
January 5th debate
ABC, WMUR-TV and Facebook jointly hosted back-to-back Democratic and Republican debates from Saint Anselm College on Saturday, January 5, just three days before the official first-in-the-nation primary the following Tuesday, January 8. Charles Gibson moderated.[41] According to Nielsen Media Research, the debate drew the largest televised audience of the primary season with an esimated 9.36 million viewers.[42]
At 8:47 p.m. EST, between the two debates, Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Bill Richardson joined the Republican candidates on the stage at St. Anselm College in Manchester. This was the first time all of the major candidates from both parties had been together on stage, as defined by ABC News. ABC News eliminated Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from the debate because they did not place first through fourth in Iowa, poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major New Hampshire surveys, or poll 5 percent or higher in one of the last four major national surveys.
Major topics were introduced with a short news-clip-style video produced by ABC and the candidates were encouraged to interact with each other. One question, "...how much you would spend with the programs you've proposed and the promises you've made.", was inexplicably withdrawn by Gibson at the last second after its introductory video had been shown. Aside from that, the debate ran smoothly. There were commercial breaks before and after each debate. The candidates were seated during the debates.
During the debate, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all battled over who best exemplified the buzzword of the campaign, "change".[43][44] In one noted exchange, Edwards said that Clinton could not bring change, while he and Obama can. "Any time you speak out powerfully for change, the forces for status quo attack." He made clear that he was referring to Clinton, adding, "I didn't hear these kind of attacks from Senator Clinton while she was ahead. Now that she's not we hear them."[44] Clinton passionately retorted: "Making change is not about what you believe; it's not about a speech you make. It's about working hard. I'm not just running on a promise for change. I'm running on 35 years of change. What we need is somebody who can deliver change. We don't need to be raising false hopes."[44] Obama replied that "The truth is, actually, words do inspire. Words do help people get involved."[45]
At another point in the debate, when one moderator asked Clinton why polls showed she was less "likeable" than other candidates, particularly Obama, she joked tongue-in-cheek, "Well that hurts my feelings ... but I'll try to go on."[43]
January 15th debate
The Nevada Democratic Party partnered with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and IMPACTO, 100 Black Men of America, and the College of Southern Nevada to hold the second Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas. The debate was telecast live by MSNBC and held at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm Pacific Standard Time.[46][47]
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama took part in the debate. Dennis Kucinich was originally invited to the debate after meeting publicly announced criteria, but the invitation was retracted after NBC changed its criteria shortly before the event. Kucinich sued for the right to participate in the debate, but after lower courts sided with Kucinich, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of MSNBC.
January 21st debate
The Congressional Black Caucus and CNN hosted a debate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at 8:00 pm EST. This debate set another record for a Cable TV audience with an estimated 4.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals Ratings. The participants were Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. The debate, chaired by Wolf Blitzer, had an unusual format; for the last forty minutes the candidates sat down and the debate took a much more casual tone.
January 31st debate
The Los Angeles Times, The Politico, and CNN hosted a Democratic debate in Hollywood, California, at the Kodak Theatre.[50][51] The debate set another Cable TV viewing record, with 8,324,000 million total viewers.[52]
This was the final Democratic party-specific debate before Super Tuesday on February 5th, 2008. This debate included two candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and started at 5 PM Pacific, ending at 6:30 PM. Topics in this cordial debate included health care, the Iraq War, and immigration.[53]
February 2nd debate
MTV and Myspace hosted a cross-party debate Live on February 2nd, 2008 at 6PM EST/3PM PST on MTV. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, and Mike Huckabee attended the debate. John McCain and Mitt Romney were invited but did not attend. Mike Gravel was not invited to attend due to little support in the state primaries and caucuses.
What a lot of history to go through there. For the last year, there have been debates upon debates after debates before debates. Something to note is that, typically, there is an average of 2-3 debates a month. Well, there's already been a debate this month, and 2 more are scheduled (one in Austin, and another in Cleveland), so why hold more? What more ground is there to cover?
I would rather have a presidential candidate who wants to get out there and meet you and me, and let us get to know the candidate, then somebody who can't say what they want to say in the first dozen and a half debates. Senator Clinton's campaign is already getting 2 more debates, and these debates will be in the suddenly crucial primary states of texas and Ohio. On top of the debates that have already been held, why does Senator Clinton need more? Why doesn't she want to spend her time campaigning, and letting the people in those states get to meet her in person? Moreover, if she can't say what she wants to say or get her views across in the first twenty-some debates, why should that be rewarded?
What is the logical reason for demanding more debates, and then putting out attack ads when you don't get as many additional debates as you want? Somebody, please tell me.
You may have noticed I've been using "Senator Clinton" throughout this. I've seen people complain about the use of just "Hillary" or just "Clinton", and those same people are almost certainly displeased when I use "Clinton II". I imagine "Mrs Clinton" is right out, and "Hillary Rodham-Clinton" has mysteriously disappeared off the face of the planet. So I've instead used the most official and respectful form of address for her. You're welcome. I'm sure there is something wrong with me using Senator Clinton, but if there is, I don't really care.
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