The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced the dates and locations for the Presidential debates of 2012.
The first debate will be at the University of Denver in Colorado, on Wednesday, October 3, just about five weeks before the election.
On Thursday, October 11, the Vice Presidential debate will take place at Centre College In Danville, Kentucky, where an earlier debate was held.
Then on Tuesday, October 16, a second Presidential debate will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, also a previous debate location.
Finally, on Monday, October 22, the final debate will be held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, just fifteen days before the election.
The fact that two of the debates are in “swing states”, the first and the last, is noteworthy, based on the concept of “first impressions” and “last licks or opportunity”!
A planned backup site, in case for some reason one of the debates cannot for some reason be held, is Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, the ultimate “swing” state, which was won by John McCain over Barack Obama by just a few thousand votes, with it taking many days before McCain could be declared the winner in that state.
One should point out that since 1900, only TWICE has the winner of the Presidency lost Missouri, and both times just by a few thousand votes–Dwight D. Eisenhower losing to Adlai Stevenson in 1956, and Barack Obama losing to John McCain in 2008!
The only candidates to be allowed in the debates will be those who have 15 percent support in the polls, with Ross Perot in 1992 being the only third party candidate to have the opportunity to debate the Republican and Democratic nominees. It is highly unlikely that any third party movement will have any chance to reach that threshold!