Bush, Kerry agree to three debates

This is not original reporting. All information has been compiled from The Washington Post article "Bush, Kerry Tentatively Settle on 3 Debates" and the USA Today article "Bush, Kerry teams reach agreement on three presidential debates" on Sept. 20, 2004.

President George W. Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry's campaigns settled on three face-to-face presidential debates on Sept. 20, according to The Washington Post. The debates are scheduled to take place starting Sept. 30.

The debate schedule spans two weeks. The first debate will take place at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and will focus on foreign policy and homeland security, according to the USA Today. The town-meeting-style debate is scheduled for Oct. 8 at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The final debate at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona on Oct. 13 will concern domestic issues such as the economy.

The vice presidential debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards will take place on Oct. 5 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. All four 90-minute debates will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, according to The Washington Post.

Chief negotiators James A. Baker III and Vernon E. Jordan Jr. for President Bush and Sen. Kerry respectively debated over the format of the town-hall-style session, according to the USA Today. They agreed to an audience of 100 to 150 local voters that are either "soft" Bush supporters or "soft" Kerry supporters, with an equal number of each. The Gallup poll organization will select final audience members, according to the USA Today and The Washington Post.

The two campaigns mostly followed the debates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, with the exception of the topics of the first and third debate, which were swapped.

The Sept. 30 debate will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of "The NewsHour" on PBS. The questioners for the Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 debates are Charles Gibson, co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and moderator of "Face the Nation." The vice presidential debate will be moderated by Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent of "The NewsHour" and moderator of PBS's "Washington Week."

Station broadcast information to come.