No debates west of St. Louis, Mo. Why not?

[JDPriestly]

General Election (2008 tentative dates)
October 15, 2008 Presidential Debate in Hempstead, New York
October 7, 2008 Presidential Debate in Nashville, TN
September 26, 2008 Presidential Debate in Oxford, Mississippi
October 2, 2008 Vice-Presidential Debate in St. Louis, Missouri

I realize there is a time problem, but it does not seem fair that the debates are all east of the Rockies. And all but one in are in what I consider to be more the south than the north. St. Louis is sort of in the middle, but still more south than north.

This does not seem right at all. Who decides this???

An afternoon debate on the West Coast would be an evening debate in Maine. So, why not debate in the west?

[srhuddle]

1. It most likely has to do with swing states.

There's a handy map on the front page of pollster.com that helps illustrate this (though it's much more recent than when the debates were scheduled), but the eastern half of the US has 13 toss-up or leaning states, as opposed to the western half's 9. More specifically, there are 5 toss-up states in the east and only 3 in the west, and 8 leaning states in the east with 6 in the west. I can't say I agree with the decision to completely exclude an entire half of the country, but I do see the logic behind it (assuming targeting the vicinity of swing states is in fact the logic behind it).

The Commission on Presidential Debates is a non-profit organization that has organized debates - with the minutiae approved by both major candidates - since 1988. I know it's chaired by two people, former heads of the DNC and RNC, but I don't remember their names off the top of my head. There was some controversy last year involving New Orleans as a possible location for a debate, but the city's request was rejected, so it would seem there's a fair bit of politics and favoritism involved in the selection process.

[loyalsister]

2. Broadcast time?

The convention broadcast Pacific time.
Maybe they are giving the eastern side a chance to set the agenda so that the country can basically watch the debates together for the most part?
The STL debate will be broadcast in CST.