How Presidential Debates Work

In the United States, the presidential debates were actually born out of a series of seven Illinois senatorial debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. The debates, with no moderator or panel, were the result of Lincoln following Douglas on his campaign trail around the state. A few days after Douglas gave a speech in a given locale, Lincoln would do the same. Douglas eventually agreed to take the stage with Lincoln seven times for three hours each to debate the moral and economic quandaries posed by slavery. The effects of their senatorial debates (Douglas won the seat) wouldn't be seen immediately; Lincoln didn't debate at all during his successful campaign for president two years later in 1860 [source: Kuzemchak].

All remained quiet on the debate front; 15 election cycles passed without much public argument between candidates — the dialogue was separate, usually in the form of campaign speeches. In 1948, the presidential debate would get a boost with a radio broadcast of a debate between Republican primary contenders Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen. Between 40 and 80 million listeners tuned into the radio broadcast of the pair's debate over outlawing communism in the United States.

Still, debates didn't really catch on. Even after the first televised debate (featuring all of the potential candidates) in 1952, hosted by the League of Women Voters (LWV), an organization that would play an enormous role in shaping presidential debates in the U. S., debates still remained peripheral to the process of selecting a president.

Once the Kennedy-Nixon series was held, though, the concept of presidential debates took off like a rocket. The public began to expect debate between candidates; debates became an American institution. With all of the weight debates now carried, they could also be construed as lightning in a bottle. To Nixon and other candidates who followed, the bottle had to be safely capped. Lyndon Johnson turned down requests to debate in 1964, as did Nixon in the 1968 campaign. Once elected, Nixon used his presidential veto power to override a bill that repealed the equal time provision of the Communications Act of 1934.

This law required that candidates in national elections must have equal exposure in the media. That meant that if a station permitted use of its broadcasting facilities to one candidate, it had to do it for all of them. Networks didn't want to turn over airtime to every candidate, whether big or small, so Congress passed a law to repeal this provision but Nixon vetoed it in 1970 [source: PBS].

During the 20th century, candidates used the equal time provision to their advantage. By refusing to debate, any candidate could effectively cripple a proposed debate. Certainly, there was a measure of bad press associated with turning down an invitation to debate. But bad press is better than bad television exposure any day of the week, as the Nixon showing in 1960 had taught. Furthermore, exploiting the equal time provision became a tool favored by front-runners in an election cycle. Bad press from a refusal to debate is far outweighed by the potential harm provided by debating a rival candidate who may have a good showing and possibly sway millions of voters.

In 1975, the FCC created a loophole to get around the equal time provision. It said that as long as debates were "bona fide news events" sponsored by some organization other than the networks, they would be exempt from equal time requirements. The nonpartisan LWV stepped in to take the reins of the political process away from campaign strategists and ran the debates for eight years. In 1988, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) took over and became the only organization capable of legitimately hosting presidential debates.

Other debates, held before the candidates are nominated at the conventions, are hosted by news agencies and television networks and aren't official presidential debates. The CPD oversees height requirements for podiums and room temperature at debate halls, chooses moderators, and serves as a propaganda arm for both the Republican and Democratic parties. The creation of the CPD ultimately tolled the death of spontaneity in presidential debates.