Voters in Silicon Valley will be packing campaign headquarters and tweeting from their homes Wednesday night as the first of three televised presidential debates takes place before a national audience.
President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney will square off against each other on a Denver stage, beginning at 6 p.m. PDT.
YouTube announced Monday that it has partnered with ABC News to livestream the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates. And according to the Washington Post, "two of YouTube’s election partners—BuzzFeed and Phil DeFranco—will be providing timely updates and inspiring the Internet’s meme hoards to create funny video clips and animated GIFs."
A digital coalition of AOL (parent company of Patch and The Huffington Post), Yahoo and Google has been formed. All three will have a live stream of the debate online. You'll also be able to watch the debate live on HuffPost Live.
The following TV channels are broadcasting live: FOX (KTVU), CBS (KPIX), ABC (KGO), PBS (KQED), NBC (KNTV), CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, CSPAN
Here's where you can watch with Republicans (No parties are scheduled for Republicans in Santa Clara County, according to the GOP website):
- The San Mateo County Republican Party hosts a party at its headquarters, located at 875 Mahler Road, Suite 120, Burlingame. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. RSVP to SMGOP Executive Director Deyan Banerjee at (408) 359-7715.
Here's where you can watch with Democrats:
- Obama campaign office in Mountain View, (the only office for the campaign between San Jose and San Francisco. People can drop by as early as 3 p.m. to volunteer on the phone and then stay to watch the debate. The campaign office is located at 1411 W. El Camino Real, Mountain View, 94040 (next to Le Petit Bistro and El Paso Restaurants). Telephone: 650-794-4067
- Debate-watchers are welcome to come to the Democratic Volunteer Center at 350 El Camino Real in Menlo Park beginning at 5 p.m. The center operates in cooperation with the Santa Clara and San Mateo Democratic Party Central Committees, local Democratic clubs, and Organizing for America, President Obama’s grassroots re-election team. 650-327-2923 or mike@demvolctr.org
- San Jose Democratic volunteer center from 6 - 7:30 p.m. 25 North 14th St.
According campaign fellow Tristan Killeen, an 18-year-old from Los Gatos who starts at UC Berkeley this fall, there may be a chance that Vice President Joe Biden will live stream a message to the observers. Killen added that if the viewing parties they had for the Democratic National Convention were any indication, they will have an overflow crowd and may have to set up a projector in the parking lot.
On Thursday, October 11, the only scheduled vice-presidential debate will take place in Danville, Kentucky.
For those wanting to join the Twitter conversation, there are several hashtags, depending on your interest. The official Twitter hashtag is #debates.
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) will be hosting a Twitter chat #debatedenverED from from 6 – 7:30 pm (PDT).
The two remaining presidential debates will be held October 16 in Hempstead, New York and October 22 in Boca Raton, Florida.
Will you watch the presidential debate? Where will you watch it? Are you waiting to choose a candidate until after the debates?
