2000 Third Presidential Debate

A filmmaker is granted unprecedented access to a political candidate and his family as he runs for President.

A retrospective on the great election battles of the past in the United States: the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the first ever to be televised; the Republican campaign of 1972, which proved to be the starting point for the Watergate scandal; and the electoral strategy of Barack Obama in 2008, the first election to fully exploit the potential of the Internet.

The fourth and final presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Friday, October 21, 1960, at the ABC studios in New York City, New York. The debate was moderated by Quincy Howe of ABC with Frank Singiser, John Edwards, Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor as panelists. Questions were related to Foreign affairs.

The third and final presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and former Governor Jimmy Carter took place on Friday, October 22, 1976, in the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The debate was moderated by Barbara Walters of ABC, who posed the questions for each candidate.

The first presidential debate took place on Sunday, September 21, 1980, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The three invitees were Carter, Anderson and Reagan, though Carter refused to attend due to the presence of Anderson. Following a strong performance by Reagan, Anderson's poll numbers began to drop. Consequently, Anderson would not be invited to the second debate.

The first presidential debate between President Ronald Reagan and former Vice President Walter Mondale took place on Sunday, October 7, 1984, at the Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville, Kentucky. The debate was moderated by Barbara Walters of ABC News and featured a panel featuring James Wieghart of New York Daily News, Diane Sawyer of CBS News, and Fred Barnes of New Republic. The topics were economic and domestic policy issues. Despite trailing far behind Reagan in the polls leading up to the debate, Mondale exceeded expectations and emerged as the clear winner of the first debate.

The second and final presidential debate between President Ronald Reagan and former Vice President Walter Mondale took place on Sunday, October 21, 1984, at the Music Hall, Municipal Auditors in Kansas City, Missouri. The debate was moderated by Edwin Newman, formerly of NBC News and featured a panel featuring Georgie Anne Geyer of Universal Press Syndicate, Marvin Kalb of NBC News, journalist Henry Trewhitt and Morton Kondracke of New Republic. The topics were defense and foreign policy issues. The debate is often seen as a victory for Reagan, most famously due to the line "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," it was received with laughter from the audience, and Mondale himself. Mondale later said that it was this moment when he realized he would lose the election.

The first presidential debate between Vice President George H. W. Bush and Governor Michael Dukakis took place on Sunday September 25, 1988, in the Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University. The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS with John Mashek of Atlanta Constitution, Peter Jennings of ABC, and Anne Groer of Orlando Sentinel as panelists. Questions divided between foreign and domestic policy. Voters were split as to who won the first presidential debate.

The first presidential debate between President George H. W. Bush, Governor Bill Clinton, and Businessman Ross Perot took place on Sunday, October 11, 1992, at the Field House, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS with Sander Vanocur, Ann Compton and John Mashek as panelists.

The first presidential debate between President Bill Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole took place on Sunday, October 6, 1996, in the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS' The NewsHour, who posed the questions for each candidate.

The second and final presidential debate between President Bill Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole took place on Wednesday, October 16, 1996, at the Shiley Theater on the campus of University of San Diego in San Diego, California. The town hall style debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS' The NewsHour with featuring the questions asked by members of the audience.