Realization / Debates

I have come to realize recently that my pursuit of a major in American History is showing through on my blog! After reading all my posts together, I realized that I am focusing more on the history of the press. Which isn't a bad thing as we need to know how it all started and how far the media has come.

Since the debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney happened last night (10/03/12), I thought it would be interesting to know the history of political debates.

The first organized, televised presidential political debate was not until 1960, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

However there were senate debates going as far back as the one between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. These were true, face-to-face debates, with no moderator; the candidates took turns to open each debate with a one-hour speech, then the other candidate had an hour and a half to rebut, and finally the first candidate closed the debate with a half-hour response