Since their inception, the presidential debates Americans have watched on television were carefully negotiated. This book closely examines a previously unexamined type of political communication, presidential debate negotiation. While it has been widely known that all general election presidential debates since 1960 have been negotiated by the participating candidates, no one has ever completed a systematic study of them. In particular, the 1960, 1976, 1980, 1984, and 1988 negotiations were examined in detail. For each of these election cycles, a comprehensive narrative of what occurred...