http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Barnett_Unprecedented_freeform_debate_format.html#comments Bob Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who helped negotiate out the debate agreement for Obama's side, said this evening that the debate would take an "unprecedented" format with the potential for some "free-form discussion" debate.
The debate, he said, will be split into nine nine-minute segments. The first four minutes of each will be taken up with a question to each of the candidates; the remaining five minutes will take different forms, up to the moderator, Jim Lehrer's discretion, and one of those options is to let the candidates address one another and interact on the subject in question.
Barnett said the debate's focus will remain foreign policy, and will address the financial crisis at length but primarily through that lens -- as it affects national security, for instance, and globalization.