A Brief History Of: Presidential Debates

When network executives began organizing the nation’s first-ever televised presidential debate in 1960, a pre-debate debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy began almost immediately. The candidates haggled over format, location, even dressing rooms, but in the end, the medium trumped the message. Sick with the flu and hobbled by a knee injury, Nixon looked pale and sweaty–an image that stuck with viewers far longer than his words did.

Nixon’s successors couldn’t forget either; it took nearly two decades for another incumbent to agree to a televised debate. In 1976, Gerald Ford sparred with Jimmy Carter to prove himself to a doubtful nation. It didn’t work. Since then, the debate over debates has raged on. In 1980, Carter refused to participate after John Anderson became the first third-party candidate to argue his way onstage; in 1992 voters made their voices heard in the first debate with a “town hall” format. Eight years later, George W. Bush and Al Gore argued even more bitterly over debate format, with each camp releasing attack ads on the topic.

This year the candidates remain as cautious as ever–both campaigns rejected invitations to attend a Google-YouTube forum in New Orleans–and perhaps rightly so. An estimated 65 million Americans will watch Barack Obama and John McCain duel for the first time on Sept. 26, many of whom will be documenting, dissecting and live-blogging their every move. Debates have been called the political version of the Indianapolis Speedway; most viewers tune in to watch the candidates crash and burn. Or, at the very least, break a sweat.