McCain, Obama to debate three times

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain will debate three times before the presidential election, beginning with a session on foreign policy on Sept. 26.

{mosads}The two campaigns announced their agreement on a debate schedule in a joint statement Thursday. It said the campaigns' appointed negotiators, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) for Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for McCain, “have come to the earliest agreement in any general election in recent history.”

The campaigns also agreed to one vice presidential debate, with details to be worked out after both candidates have named their running mates. The two are expected to announce those decisions soon.

The first debate is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi where the focus will be on foreign policy and national security. PBS’s Jim Lehrer will moderate.

The vice presidential debate is next on the calendar, set for Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis and moderated by Gwen Ifill.

The second presidential debate, which will be a town hall format, is scheduled for Oct. 7 at Belmont University and will be moderated by NBC News’s Tom Brokaw. The statement said that all questions in this debate will come from the audience and not the moderator.

The last debate is set for Oct. 15, just more than two weeks before the election, at Hofstra University. The focus of the debate is domestic and economic policy, and Bob Schieffer of CBS News will moderate.