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Prepared by educators and researchers involved in argumentation and debate, the articles in this special journal issue are based upon the assumptions that presidential debates are important, are likely to continue, and are of unique interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of argument. The first two articles in the issue provide overviews of both presidential debates and of the place of the debates in the 1980 campaign. The next three articles analyze respectively the impact of the controversy over whether the candidates would debate at all, the basic debate strategy and specific argumentative tactics of candidate Ronald Reagan and his advisers, and the types of statements employed by President Jimmy Carter, John Anderson, and Reagan in the debates, as well as the types of issues each addressed. The two remaining articles examine how Reagan came to be regarded as the "winner" of the debates with Carter, and how the various formats for televised political debates affected the debates themselves. The journal issue also contains a selected bibliography of materials dealing with presidential campaign debating. (FL)