The Presidential debate formats and dates have been announced (via Fly Trap):

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) today announced formats for its 2004 debates. Dates and sites for these debates were announced on November 6, 2003 as follows:

First presidential debate:
Thursday, September, 30, 2004
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

Vice presidential debate:

Tuesday, October 5, 2004
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH

Second presidential debate:

Friday, October 8, 2004
Washington University
St. Louis, MO

Third presidential debate:

Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ

Format

The candidates will be seated at a table with the moderator in the first and third presidential debates and in the vice presidential debate.

The second presidential debate will use the town meeting format in which undecided voters, selected by the Gallup Organization, will question the candidates.

Each debate will last for ninety minutes, start at 9:00 p.m. ET, and take place before a live audience.

The first presidential debate will focus primarily on domestic policy, and the third presidential debate will focus primarily on foreign policy. The town meeting debate and the vice presidential debate will be open to all topics.

Moderators

Each debate will have a different single moderator to be selected by the CPD. The four moderators will be announced no later than September 10.

The moderators? job in the first and third presidential debates and the vice presidential debate will be to introduce and change topics, to ensure that the participants have equal time, and to encourage some direct exchange among the candidates. The moderators will select all topics and questions.

In the town meeting debate, the town meeting participants will pose their questions to the candidates. The town meeting participants will review their questions with the moderator before the debate for the sole purpose of avoiding duplicate questions.

The moderators will have discretion to ask follow-up questions in all debates.

Based on the 2000 debates, here’s the only followup question the moderators will need : “Mr. Bush, could you please stop babbling and answer the question?”