Perhaps the most famous debates are the Lincoln-Douglas debates. They were NOT a presidential debate; they ran for the United States Senate seat from Illinois in 1858. Democrat Douglas was the incumbent seeking a third term. Lincoln, the challenger, and former one-term congressman represented the new Republican party that rose from the ashes of the former Whig party. They would face off seven times across the state in afternoons in fields and on the prairie.

One would open with a one-hour address, then the opponent had an hour and a half to respond. The opening speaker then had a half-hour rebuttal, and you wonder how this would go today with our collective attention spans. Besides the contrast in experience, Lincoln was a foot taller than his rival, who was dressed impeccably- not one of Abe’s strong suits (ok, pun intended).

When the founding fathers wrote the Constitution in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, they preferred that state legislators choose their senators. The people would not be granted the power to elect their senators until 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. These debates should be named Douglas-Lincoln because the Little Giant was reelected 53-47 in the Illinois House. Fortunately for us, it made Abraham Lincoln a national figure. Two years later, they would represent their parties for the presidency in the election preceding the Civil War.

The first presidential debate(s) took place in 1960 between Democrat John Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon and was televised. What most people don’t realize is that the two men had actually debated once before. In April of 1947, the two freshman congressmen traveled by train to McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The local congressman was asked to “pick the two hottest political prospects, one Republican, and the other Democrat, to duke it out on the Taft-Hartley bill”. That gentleman should be given credit for forecasting the presidential candidates thirteen years later. After the debate, they shared a sleeper car on the Capitol Limited and “drew straws for the lower berth, Nixon won. Then, as the train rolled on toward Washington, the two spent the early morning hours talking,” about foreign policy and the newly named ‘Cold War.’ To be a fly on the wall in that train car.

Next up, brief anecdotes from all the presidential debates.