Commission: Debate to Feature No Questions on Bailout Deal

Tonight’s presidential debate will feature no questions on the pending Wall Street bailout deal, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) told The Hill this afternoon, despite moderator Jim Lehrer’s previous insistence that he is not constrained by the debate’s set topics of foreign policy and national security.

When asked how current bailout negotiations, and discussion of the deal between presidential candidates, will affect the topics addressed in tonight’s debate, CPD spokesman Scott Warner told The Hill, “It won’t. That’s the quick answer.”

“The focus is still on foreign policy and national security,” the topics the debate has long been scheduled to address, Warner said.

Despite wide speculation that the debate would shift focus to address the nation’s current financial crisis, Warner said the debate will feature zero questions on the potential bailout deal that is being negotiated in Washington.

Neither presidential campaign has contacted CPD about incorporating that topic, Warner said, and the CPD has not contacted PBS’s Jim Lehrer, the debate’s moderator, about including any questions on the potential bailout.

Lehrer told The New York Times yesterday, “I am not restrained from asking questions about the financial crisis.”

Warner agreed with Lehrer can ask any question he wants.

“Jim Lehrer (and all moderators) has complete discretion and control over all questions that will be asked,” Warner told The Hill in an e-mail.