2012 United States presidential debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) held four United States presidential debates for the 2012 presidential election, slated for various locations around the country in October. Three presidential debates involved the major party nominees Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, while the vice presidential debate involved Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.[1]
The CPD stipulates three criteria for eligibility: constitutionally eligible, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and average at least 15% on five selected national polls.[2] Obama and Romney satisfied all requirements to participate. The moderators for the debates were announced on August 13, 2012.[3][4]
All four debates took place between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EDT.[5] Subsequently, on October 3, both campaigns executed a memorandum of understanding governing technical and administrative details of the debate.[6] The agreement describes the role of the moderator, rules applicable to each debate, staging and seating arrangements, and ticket distribution, and was signed by Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg, general counsel of the Obama and Romney campaigns, respectively.[6]
Several non-CPD sanctioned debates among third party candidates took place. The first, moderated by Larry King and organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, took place on October 23 between Rocky Anderson, Virgil Goode, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein.[7] Stein and Johnson were selected using instant-runoff voting for a second Free and Equal debate, which was hosted by RT and took place on November 5.[8][9] Ralph Nader hosted and moderated a debate between Anderson, Stein, Goode, and Johnson on November 4.[10]