Hofstra University will host the second debate between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney -- and the third debate between the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets -- tomorrow, October 16th, when Obama and Romney square off in Hempstead, New York.
Huffington Post Executive Education Editor Lance Gould spoke with Meena Bose, the Director of Hofstra’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, about the presidential debate, which will be moderated by CNN's Candy Crowley.
While discussing how commanders in chief from previous eras might have performed in televised debates -- presidents Harding and McKinley would have done well, not so Hoover, said Bose -- the question of who might have been a good user of social media came up.
Would Hoover not have been a very good tweeter?
"I think not!" said the presidential historian. "I don't think that was his instinct. He was more an administrator than a tweeter. But Harding or McKinley might well have been good tweeters. Calvin Coolidge: master of the pithy statement!"
Bose also addressed why debates today take place on college campuses.
"Before the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was created [in 1987], the debates were typically held in television studios or at other settings across the country," said Bose. "But because of challenges with organizing and differences of opinion between the campaigns, the Commission was created as a nonpartisan resource for coordinating between the two campaigns. University and college campuses are an ideal setting because, of course, they reach our youth voters, and in many cases, students who will be voting for the very first time."
All four debates are sponsored by the nonpartisan CPD.