Presidential Debates

It's Tuesday, six weeks from the biggest election of my lifetime. I'm a big believer in getting as much information about candidates as possible, so this week's election note is about the debates.

This year there will be 3 90 minute debates between Obama and McCain. The first is this Friday, hosted at the University of Mississippi by Jim Lehrer. The previously announced topics are foreign policy and national security issues. It will be interesting to see if that changes in light of the financial turmoil of the past few weeks. The format, for the geeks like me that care, is 2 minute response to a question followed by 5 minutes of discussion. It starts at 9 EST and in my area at least, is playing on all of the major networks.

The next debate will be October 7 at Belmont University. Tom Brokaw will moderate the town-hall style meeting, with questions from the audience and via the internet. The final presidential debate, which has domestic and economic issues planned, will be 10/15 at Hofstra University with Bob Schieffer moderating.

For those of you who aren't in love with the political info I'll be writing about the finances of adjusting to the new job and planning for the holidays later this week.