2012 Presidential Debate Schedule « 2012 Election Central

TV Channels – Each debate will be broadcast live on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, as well as all cable news channels including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC among others.

Live Stream – Each debate will be streamed live online. Check back here for the live stream.

October 3, 2012

Topic: Domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: University of Denver in Denver, Colorado (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.

The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

October 11, 2012
Vice Presidential

Topic: Foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Centre College in Danville, Kentucky (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan
Moderator: Martha Raddatz (ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent)

The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

October 16, 2012

Topic: Town meeting format including foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
Moderator: Candy Crowley (CNN Chief Political Correspondent)

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

October 22, 2012

Topic: Foreign policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
Moderator: Bob Schieffer (Host of Face the Nation on CBS)

The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.

2012 Presidential Debate Schedule « 2012 Election Central

Cutting Federal jobs makes perfect sense if you want to prove government can’t get anything done. Starve the beast. Doesn’t do much for employment figures.

Heather Huhman: 7 Ways Our Presidential Candidates Plan to Tackle Unemployment

Reduce the federal workforce (Romney). As part of Romney’s fiscal policy, he plans to cut the overall size of the federal workforce by 10 percent. Romney posits that, although the private sector has been steadily losing jobs, the federal workforce has grown by 6.9 percent. The thought is to put federal resources where they should be most effectively used. Does this mean widespread federal layoffs? Romney’s plan does not highlight the details. To contrast, Obama plans to add nearly 15,000 jobs to the federal workforce if elected.

Heather Huhman: 7 Ways Our Presidential Candidates Plan to Tackle Unemployment

Poll: Obama Approval Up 7 Points After DNC

Obama’s approval rating climbed to 52 percent, his highest rating in many months, according to Gallup’s latest poll. The last three days of the Democratic National Convention gave him a 7 percent bump in approval over three days, with a 3 percent hike in just the past 24 hours. Mitt Romney received no bump in the polls from the RNC, dropping from 47 percent before the convention to 46 percent. The DNC also surpassed the RNC in ratings; even competing with the opening night of NFL football, more people tuned in to Bill Clinton’s DNC speech than the second half of the Cowboys-Giants game.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/07/814511/poll-obama-approval-up-after-dnc/

Transcript: President Obama’s Convention Speech

from National Public Radio

I know campaigns can seem small, even silly sometimes. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. The truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. …

All they have to offer is the same prescriptions they’ve had for the last 30 years. Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high — try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning. … We have been there, we’ve tried that, and we’re not going back. We are moving forward, America. …

So now you have a choice between a strategy that reverses this progress or one that builds on it. …

And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet, because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children’s future.

And in this election, you can do something about it.  …

You know, in a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven. Four years ago I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. (Cheers, applause.) I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have. (Cheers, applause.) We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan and in 2014, our longest war will be over. (Cheers, applause.) A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al- Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead. …

So now we have a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy. But from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.

After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy — not al- Qaida, Russia — unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War mind warp. You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally. My opponent — my opponent said that it was tragic to end the war in Iraq. And he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. Well, I have, and I will. …

If you turn away now — if you turn away now, if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void, the lobbyists and special interests, the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are trying to make it harder for you to vote, Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves. Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only you have the power to move us forward. …

If you reject the notion that our government is forever beholden to the highest bidder, you need to stand up in this election.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=160713941