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The IssueThe presidential debates -- the single most important electoral events in the process of selecting a president -- should provide voters with an opportunity to see the popular candidates discussing important issues in an unscripted manner. Unfortunately, the presidential debates fail to do so, because the major party candidates secretly control them.Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution, the CPD has deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people. Since 1988, negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees have secretly drafted debate contracts that dictate precisely how the presidential debates will be structured. The CPD, which is co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, has obediently implemented those contracts. Such deceptive major party control has harmed our democracy. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded, and the debates have been turned into a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the candidates exchange memorized soundbites. Walter Cronkite called CPD-sponsored presidential debates an "unconscionable fraud." Open Debates has helped establish a truly nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission comprised of national civic leaders to sponsor presidential debates that are rigorous, informative, and inclusive of popular candidates. The higher values of democracy and voter education will be restored to the presidential debates by the Citizens' Debate Commission.
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