No podiums! What, just because Kerry's taller and better-looking?

Commission on Presidential Debates Announces Formats for 2004 Debates

* The candidates will be seated at a table with the moderator in the first and third presidential debates and in the vice presidential debate.

* The second presidential debate will use the town meeting format in which undecided voters, selected by the Gallup Organization, will question the candidates.

* Each debate will last for ninety minutes, start at 9:00 p.m. ET, and take place before a live audience.

* The first presidential debate will focus primarily on domestic policy, and the third presidential debate will focus primarily on foreign policy. The town meeting debate and the vice presidential debate will be open to all topics...

* Each debate will have a different single moderator to be selected by the CPD. The four moderators will be announced no later than September 10...

* The moderators will have discretion to ask follow-up questions in all debates.

Also worthy of note: the threshhold for inclusion in the debate is, be on enough ballots to have at least a theoretical chance of winning, plus achieve a 15 percent support level in an average of national polls just before a given debate.

So by the third debate, it should just be John Kerry on stage... [ba dump bump].

And it looks like it'll only be Jim Lehrer for one debate this time. Probably a good thing.