The International Debate Education Association (IDEA) has published a free 157 page guide to the 2012 Presidential debates. The guide offers detailed overviews and opinion pieces about seventeen issues that could come up during the 2012 Presidential debates. The issues are divided into three categories; Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Economic Policy. Within each section there are opinion pieces for students to read and debate in your classroom.

Applications for Education 
IDEA’s Teaching Tools page contains a big collection of suggested activities for teaching students how to constructively debate. You may want to use some of those activities in conjunction with lessons about the 2012 Presidential debates that are based on The IDEA Guide to the 2012 Presidential Debates.