Presidential, VP debates set for next October

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced Monday that all three presidential debates of the 2012 campaign cycle - as well as the debate between the vice presidential candidates - will take place next October.

The first presidential debate will take place on Wednesday, October 3 at the University of Denver, in Colorado. That will be followed by the vice presidential debate on October 11 at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

Five days later, on October 16th, the presidential candidates will face off again, this time at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. That debate will be a town hall format. The final debate will take place on October 22, at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Election Day comes roughly two weeks later, on November 6.

The CPD said the backup site for the debates will be Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The format and moderators for the debates will be announced next year.

To participate in the debates, a presidential candidate must (1) be constitutionally eligible, (2) appear on enough state ballots that it is mathematically possible they could take enough electoral votes to win a majority, and (3) have 15 percent support according to five selected national public opinion polls.

Such criteria make it likely that only the two major party candidates will participate in the debate. A strong third-party candidate could potentially find his or her way onto on the debate stage, however: In the 1992 cycle, Ross Perot was granted entry into the debates, giving him an opportunity to discuss "the giant sucking sound" of U.S. jobs going to Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In the vice presidential debate, meanwhile, Perot's running mate Admiral James Stockdale memorably asked rhetorically, "who am I? Why am I here?"

The nonprofit CPD has sponsored the general election debates since 1988. It has previously turned to both Hofstra and Centre College as debate hosts.