Guest Author - Violette DeSantis

It is debate time for the 2008 presidential election. At least three 90-minute debates are scheduled for Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Over 40 million people are expected to watch the debates on television. Let’s take a look back at the origins of presidential debates to see how they measure up.

1858 is the year our country saw the first presidential debates when Abraham Lincoln, a former Republican US Congressman from Illinois travelled to seven congressional districts in his state to debate with Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic US State Senator, also from Illinois.

In comparison to what we see on a moderator driven debate in modern times, the first debate ran the length of a few speeches as opposed to a question and answer routine. It was three hours long and each congressional district saw a different candidate starting the debate with an hour speech, followed by the next candidate’s rebuttal for an hour and a half. It then ended with whoever started the speech, closing in half an hour.

Historians have created reenactments of the speech that are a great way to get a taste of politics back in the day. The speech transcripts come from the newspapers of the day and they can be read at C-Span. It is interesting to note that much like what we would see in a town meeting, the audience would shout out comments or questions to the candidate as if at a football rally. Debates today are organized with prepared questions from the moderator and responses are timed.

The topic of the day was slavery and the Union, two issues that divided our then smaller nation. In 2008 the issues are just as divisive, the war in Iraq being the most important. To read the transcripts you get a feel for how our government today is very similar to its origins. The issues were as varied and numerous.

Jump forward to September 26, 1960 and America literally witnessed the debut of presidential debates to TV when John F. Kennedy debated Richard M. Nixon. Until then invitations to debates were turned down or were on the radio. After 1960 the TV debates didn’t become a regular event until 1976 when they happened regularly in every presidential election year from then to the present between the parties.

What each candidate hopes to do in a debate is to attract new voters. Today’s presidential candidates even have the added benefit of their selected vice president candidates debating. So, if the presidential candidate isn’t good at saying what he stands for and what he believes he can do for the country, there is always hope that his future vice president can.

Political speeches and debates are an exciting part of politics. To learn more about presidential debates visit:

C-Span (search for debates or Lincoln)
Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)
The History of Televised Presidential Debates