When was the first US Presidental debate in a campaign?

zbeckabee

While the first general presidential debate was not held until 1960, several other debates are considered predecessors to the presidential debates. The famed series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas for U.S. Senate—the Lincoln-Douglas debates—were true, face-to-face debates, with no moderator; the candidates took it in turns to open each debate with a one-hour speech, then the other candidate had an hour and a half to rebut, and finally the first candidate closed the debate with a half-hour response. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_debates#History Sep 26 08, 9:42 PM