The 2012 presidential election cycle featured incumbent President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee.
First Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Date: October 3, 2012
Topic: Domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)
The debate focused on domestic policy and was divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.
The moderator opened each segment with a question, after which each candidate had two minutes to respond. The moderator used the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.
