JIm Lehrer  –  Gwen Ifill  –  Tom Brokaw  –  Bob Schieffer

The Commission on Presidential Debates, which has set three fall dates for the presidential candidates to debate and one for the vice-presidential nominees, today announced the four well-known television journalists listed above as moderators.

Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of PBS’s “The NewsHour,” will be the moderator for the one held on Sept. 26 at The University of Mississippi in Oxford.

The next debate, involving the vice presidential candidates (whenever they’re named) is set for Oct. 2, and will be moderated by Gwen Ifill, a senior correspondent for “The NewsHour” and managing editor/host of PBS’ “Washington Week.” That one will be held at Washington University in St. Louis.

On Oct. 7, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain are to meet again for a town-hall style forum at Belmont University in Nashville. NBC’s Tom Brokaw will moderate this one, which will entail vetting questions submitted by undecided voters of the Nashville region who were chosen by the Gallup Poll organization.

The commission says the vetting process is primarily to avoid duplication. In addition, Mr. Brokaw will be allow to pose questions submitted via the Internet.

And the final presidential debate will be moderated by Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Oct. 15 at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.

ABC News is noticeably left without a debate, perhaps a response to what many perceived as a "Gotcha!"-style debate hosted by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates.

The commissioners said earlier that the campaigns would not have veto power over the choice of moderators. Third-party candidates are unlikely to be able to meet the criteria for qualifying to take part in these debates.

Other details of the debate formats had been released earlier. As we mentioned before, the candidates will be seated for two of the three presidential debates, although the commissioners told us that they did not choose that format to accommodate height differences between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama.

Over the weekend, David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, sent a letter accepting the format and naming Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois, as its go-between with the commission.

Mr. Plouffe’s letter also stated flatly that because of the lateness of the parties’ national conventions this year, the commission-sponsored debates would be the only such forums.

That, of course, prompted the McCain campaign to complain that Mr. Obama was rejecting Mr. McCain’s invitations to appear in dual town-hall meetings throughout the course of the general election cycle.

The two candidates, however, also will appear together on Aug. 16 at a mega-church forum in Lake Forest, Calif. at the invitation of the Rev. Rick Warren.

Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chairmen of the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), announced the moderators for the 2008 general election presidential and vice presidential debates. The moderators, and the schedule and locations for the debates (as announced on November 21, 2007), are as follows: 

First presidential debate
Friday, September 26
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS 

Vice presidential debate
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing Editor,
Washington Week, PBS 

Second presidential debate (town meeting)
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.
Tom Brokaw
Special Correspondent, NBC News 

Third presidential debate
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation 

Each debate will begin at 9:00 p.m. EDT. 

Format
The format for the debates, announced on November 21, 2007, will be: 

-- Each debate will have a single moderator and last for 90 minutes.

-- In the first and third presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, the candidates will be seated with the moderator at a table. 

-- One presidential debate will focus primarily on domestic policy and one presidential debate will focus primarily on foreign policy. The second presidential debate will be held as a town meeting in which citizens will pose questions to the candidates. The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics. 

-- During the first and third presidential debates, and the vice presidential debate, the time will be divided into eight, ten-minute segments. The moderator will introduce each segment with an issue on which each candidate will comment, after which the moderator will facilitate further discussion of the issue, including direct exchange between the candidates for the balance of that segment. 

-- The participants in the town meeting will pose their questions to the candidates after reviewing their questions with the moderator for the sole purpose of avoiding duplication. The participants will be chosen by the Gallup Organization and will be undecided voters from the Nashville, Tenn. standard metropolitan statistical area. During the town meeting, the moderator has discretion to use questions submitted by Internet. 

-- Time at the end of the final presidential debate will be reserved for closing statements.

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