U.S. presidential election debates, 2004

The 2004 United States Presidential Election Debates were sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) and concluded October 13, nearly three weeks before election scheduled for November 2, 2004.

Schedule

Three presidential debates were scheduled by the Commission on Presidential Debates:

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• 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 was held:

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• October 5 at Case Western Reserve University, moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS

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.

Related Topics:
September 24 - Memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Bush campaign and Kerry campaign - September 20

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The September 24 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.

Related Topics:
September 24 - Town meeting

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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.

Related Topics:
Gallup Organization - Standard metropolitan statistical area - 1992 - 1996 - 2000 debates - September 24 - Frank Newport

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