Belmont to host 2nd presidential debate

Music City USA will take center stage during the crescendo of the presidential campaign next year.

That’s because Belmont University will host the second presidential debate next year, the Commission on Presidential Debates revealed today.

In a mid-afternoon press conference, Belmont University President Bob Fisher glowed over his University being awarded a town hall debate on Oct. 7, 2008 at the Curb Event Center on Belmont’s campus.

“It’s always a song for me,” Fisher said. “And I’m Walking on Sunshine, and don’t it feel good.”

The debate will allow the audience to ask questions of the respective nominees of the Democratic and Republican Parties as well as any third-party candidates that may be included.

Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was one of several elected officials at the press conference, said Tennessee is in the “middle of mainstream American values” and was a “perfect place” for a town hall-style debate to occur.

“A presidential candidate who can sell themselves here can certainly sell themselves to mainstream America,” Bredesen said, adding that Tennessee has sided with the winner of the presidential election every time since 1932 with one exception in 1960.

Butch Spyridon, the president of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, estimated that the debate would take in “millions” for the Nashville-area economy.

The Belmont-hosted debate will be the second presidential debate and the third debate between the tickets.

The debate schedule run down is as follows:

Presidential debate - Friday, Sept. 26 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.

Vice Presidential debate – Thursday, Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Second Presidential debate – Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Belmont University

Third Presidential debate – Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Hofstra University

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s The City Paper …