Summary: Presidential debates don’t necessarily decide who will occupy the White House. But history has shown that regardless of what effect they do have, they are often memorable — for better or worse.<br> Our “Great Moments in Presidential Debates” special starts with <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/camd/journalism/people/alan-schroeder/">Alan Schroeder</a>, an expert on the subject, assessing Ronald Reagan‘s great lines in his 1980 debate with President Carter and 1984 with Walter Mondale. He also discusses the role the Kennedy-Nixon debates had in 1960 and what, if anything, the vice-presidential debates mean in the grand scheme of things.<br> <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/marvin-kalb">Marvin Kalb</a>, who in 1984 was a correspondent for NBC News, recalls his role in that famous second Reagan-Mondale debate. <a href="http://vtdigger.org/author/jon-margolis/">Jon Margolis</a>, then a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, talks about his participation in the VP debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle in 1988. And <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/team/bob-schieffer/">Bob Schieffer</a>, the former host of CBS’ Face the Nation, talks about how he prepared for his role as moderator in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 debates.<br> And what’s a discussion about debates without Saturday Night Live? We end our program with memorable SNL debate skits from the past.<br> <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/22/cnns-gut-check-for-october-22-2012/">Photo via Getty Images</a><br> Music used in the podcast:<br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Hits-So-Far/dp/B00000DR6J">Don’t Ask Me by Public Image Limited</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C3KMAM/ref=sr_1_3_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B001C3HQ9C&qid=1473892314&sr=1-3%3C/a%3E">Question by The Moody Blues</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-Dangling-Conversation/dp/B00136NV6A">The Dangling Conversation by Simon & Garfunkel</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Casual-Conversations-2010-Remastered/dp/B00KVYAPCI">Casual Conversations by Supertramp</a><br> <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Slam_Funk/Broke_For_Free_-_Slam_Funk_-_04_Caught_In_The_Beat">Caught in the Beat by Broke for Free</a><br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-New-Tale-To-Tell/dp/B000SFU1PG">No New Tale to Tell by Love and Rockets</a><br> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license"></a><br> This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a><br>
