2008 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums

The 2008 Democratic Presidential Debates are political debates prior to the 2008 Democratic Primaries. The debates began on April 26, 2007, in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Each debate will be moderated and broadcast by one of the major media news networks.

While the debates have no official impact on the primaries, they are opportunities for the candidates to let their views and opinions be known. They are also important chances for the voting public to compare the candidates side-by-side. Accordingly, all of the major, and many of the minor, Democratic candidates have agreed to take part in at least one debate. Several candidates will likely attend all or most of the debates.

Election 2008

Main article: United States presidential election, 2008

Also see: Republican presidential debates, 2008

The 2008 United States Presidential Election is November 4, 2008. The debates, campaigns, primaries, and conventions occur several months before Election Day. The new President and Vice-President are sworn in January 20, 2009. It is the first Presidential election lacking incumbents since 1952, and is projected to be the largest and most expensive election in U.S. history.

2008 Democratic Candidates

Main article: 2008 Democratic presidential candidates

Already, eight Democrats have formally filed papers with the Federal Election Commission, making them formal candidates for the Democratic Nomination and the Presidency. The candidates who have attracted the most media attention include Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. Other candidates include Joe Biden, Christopher Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson. Tom Vilsack, one of the earliest candidates to announce a campaign for President, has since withdrawn.

In addition to the announced candidates, there are several potential candidates, those who have not declared their intentions, but have considered the possibility of running. These candidates include Al Gore and Wesley Clark. As these candidates have not announced any plans to run, they are not participating in the debates.

Candidates in Debate

Following is the list of candidates that are participating in the debates:

• Sen. Joe Biden - Delaware
• Sen. Hillary Clinton - New York
• Sen. Chris Dodd - Connecticut
• Fmr. Sen. John Edwards - North Carolina
• Fmr. Sen. Mike Gravel - Alaska
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich - Ohio
• Sen. Barack Obama - Illinois
• Gov. Bill Richardson - New Mexico

The Debates

April 26, 2007 – Orangeburg, South Carolina

The first Democratic debate was in the evening of April 26, 2007, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, at South Carolina State University. State party chairman Joe Erwin said that he chose South Carolina State because it is a historically black college, noting that African-Americans have been the "most loyal" Democrats in the state. The debate was 90 minutes with a 60-second time limit for answers, and no opening or closing statements. It was broadcast via cable television and online video streaming by MSNBC.

The debate was moderated by Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News. Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH sent two students to cover the debate on location who gained spin room access.

The major issue discussed was the Iraq War, with all candidates strongly criticizing President George W. Bush. Although there was some initial hype, the debate was seen by pundits as unspectacular, with no single "breakout" candidate. A poll of 403 South Carolina debate watchers indicated that they believed Senator Barack Obama won the debate with 31% to Clinton's 24%. However, Tom Baldwin of The Times and Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian both reported that Clinton appeared to retain her frontrunner status.

Political pundits such as Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough declared that Clinton was the most "presidential", in that her appearance and answers were succinct, within the time limit and thorough, leaving no second-guesses. They effectively called her the winner.

With regards to the solid third-polled candidate Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), pundits varied, with some asserting that his performance was weak and not the usual energetic performance that he portrayed in 2003, when he first ran. Howard Fineman also opined that questions regarding his $400 haircut and his "Two Americas" theme are under fire because of severe discrepancies, threatening his main campaign theme.

• CFR Transcript MSNBC Transcript

June 3, 2007 – Manchester, New Hampshire

WMUR-TV, CNN, and the New Hampshire Union Leader hosted both Democratic and Republican debates in Manchester, New Hampshire, at Saint Anselm College. The Democratic debate was Sunday, June 3, starting at 7 PM EDT and lasting two hours, commercial free. The moderator was Wolf Blitzer, host of Late Edition and The Situation Room. He was joined by Tom Fahey of The Union Leader and Scott Spralding from the local NH television station WMUR. The first half of the debate was a directed question and answer, with candidates at podiums, as in the first debate, responding to questions from Fahey and Spralding.

For the second half, candidates sat in chairs, while audience members in New Hampshire, mostly undecided Democratic and independent voters, asked questions which were then deflected by Wolf Blitzer to specific candidates.

• CFR Transcript CNN Transcript CNN Video

June 28, 2007 – Washington, D.C.

PBS held and televised a debate at Howard University, a historically black college. The moderator was Tavis Smiley. All eight candidates discussed various topics including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community. The debate drew a record crowd of who's who celebrities such as Harry Belafonte, Al Sharpton, Dorothy Heights, Jesse Jackson, Terry McMillan, Judge Hatchett, Mark Ridley-Thomas, amongst other celebrities. This was the first debate to give equal time to all the candidates. The earlier debates were heavily biased towards three candidates.

• PBS Transcript PBS Video, Audio and downloadable Podcast New York Times Transcript CFR Transcript [rtsp://video.c-span.org/archive/c08/c08_062807_demsdebate.rm C-SPAN Video]

July 12, 2007 – Detroit, Michigan

Attended by all eight candidates.

This was held during the NAACP convention. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton were overheard -- on stage, over microphones -- talking about weeding out non-frontrunner candidates from participating in future debates.

July 23, 2007 – Charleston, South Carolina

Main article: CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates

CNN and YouTube held this debate on the campus of The Citadel. All questions were selected from, and posed as videos submitted via, YouTube by members of the public; the debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper of Anderson Cooper 360. YouTube and Google streamed the event live. It was also simulcast on CNN en Español.

• CFR Transcript CNN Transcript CNN Video

August 4, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois

The Yearly Kos Presidential Leadership Forum was an informal discussion attended by seven of the eight presidential candidates, with Biden not attending due to votes in Congress. New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai and DailyKos Contributing Editor and Fellow Joan McCarter moderated. The debate was broken down into Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Philosophy and Leadership. Candidates were alloted 90 seconds for each question with 45 second rebuttals, although the time limits were not strictly enforced. After the debate, breakout sessions were held where convention goers could question each candidate individually.

• YearlyKos Video

August 7, 2007 – Chicago, Illinois

The AFL-CIO Working Families Vote Presidential Forum was held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois in front of approximately 15,000 union members and their families. The questions in the debate will be used to determine if and whom the AFL-CIO will endorse in the Democratic primary. MSNBC host Keith Olbermann hosted the debate, which featured seven of the candidates. Mike Gravel was excluded because he failed to submit a written questionnaire by the August 6 deadline. Gravel claimed that the questionnaire "fell through the cracks" and requested to be invited to the debate anyway, which was rejected by the AFL-CIO. Questionnaires were also sent to Republicans but no candidates responded.

• CFR Transcript Chicago Sun-Times Transcript New York Times Transcript MSNBC Video

August 9, 2007 – Los Angeles, California

LGBT network Logo hosted this debate focusing on LGBT issues, moderated by Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and singer Melissa Etheridge. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel participated. Mike Gravel was originally to be excluded from this debate, it being cited that his campaign had not raised enough money to qualify for participation. Rallying from Gravel's supporters reversed this decision. Dodd and Biden both stated scheduling conflicts prevented them from attending. Logo invited the Republicans presidential candidates to a similar debate, but all the candidates declined.

• Chicago Sun-Times Transcript The Visible Vote '08 Video

August 19, 2007 – Des Moines, Iowa

ABC News in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party held a debate streamed on This Week moderated by George Stephanopoulos. ABC has been accused of spinning the results of the debate due to extreme differences in the time alloted to candidates. ABC also deleted poll results when they showed Dennis Kucinich in the lead.

• ABC Transcript ABC Video (incomplete, edited, and out of chronological order) [rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/rwh/rwh081907.rm C-SPAN Video]

September 9, 2007 – Coral Gables, Florida

Univision hosted a forum in Spanish at the University of Miami's Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida and moderated by Univision's anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas. Joe Biden did not participate in the debate.

September 12, 2007

Yahoo!, in partnership with The Huffington Post, produced a "mashup" debate with Charlie Rose interviewing the candidates. Segments were recorded on September 12th, with the "mashups" posted on September 13th.

• interactive mashup site

September 20, 2007 – Davenport, Iowa

PBS held a forum focused on domestic issues, specifically health care and financial security. It was moderated by Judy Woodruff, and was a joint venture between IPTV and AARP. Obama rejected PBS's invitation, and Gravel and Kucinich were excluded from the debate because they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.

September 26, 2007 – Hanover, New Hampshire

MSNBC held a debate at Dartmouth College in conjunction with New England Cable News and New Hampshire Public Radio.

• MSNBC Video CFR Transcript iPol Transcript NYT Transcript The moderator was Tim Russert.

October 30, 2007 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The debate was televised by NBC News on NBC News and MSNBC. The debate was held at Drexel University. All candidates except for Former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel were expected to attend the debate. It was announced on October 19th that Senator Gravel did not meet the polling requirements for the debate, though the DNC did not specifically say what the requirements were. Instead of attending the debate, Senator Gravel staged an event at the nearby World Cafe Live.

Seven Democratic presidential candidates participated in a two-hour debate starting at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) and telecast on MSNBC and streamed live on msnbc.com.

The moderators of the debate were be Tim Russert and Brian Williams.

November 15, 2007 – Las Vegas, Nevada

The Nevada Democratic Party will host a Democratic debate to be aired on CNN. The moderator will be Wolf Blitzer.

December 10, 2007 – Los Angeles, California

CBS announced a debate in conjunction with the California Democratic Party; potential moderators are Bob Schieffer and Katie Couric.

January 6, 2008 – Johnson County, Iowa

The Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television will host a Democratic debate in Johnson County, Iowa.

January 15, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada

The Caucus of African-American Nevadans and Impacto will host a Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

January 31, 2008 – Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Times and CNN will host a Democratic debate in California.

Cancelled Debates

August 14, 2007 – Reno, Nevada

The Nevada State Democratic Party had originally agreed to co-host a Democratic debate with Fox News Channel in Reno, Nevada. Despite opposition from groups like MoveOn.org, the party agreed to bring in Fox News in an effort to find "new ways to talk to new people." However, several Democratic candidates refused to participate. On March 12, 2007, the party announced it had pulled out of the debate, effectively canceling it.

September 23, 2007 – Detroit, Michigan

The Congressional Black Caucus and Fox News Channel had planned to host a Democratic debate in Detroit, Michigan. It is unknown if this debate will be affected by the controversy surrounding Fox News and the canceled Reno, Nevada, debate.

Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) immediately denounced the association and dropped out of the debate repeating that Fox News is a "propaganda" arm of the Republican Party. Soon, Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) dropped out for the same reason. On May 31, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd said they also were pulling out, leaving only Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Joe Biden to attend.