How the parties collaborated to make the "debates" as boring as possilbe

Greenwald:

Gawker's John Cook has an excellent breakdown of the 21-page memo. In his piece, entitled "Leaked Debate Agreement Shows Both Obama and Romney are Sniveling Cowards", Cook details how the rules imposed on these debates demonstrate that, above all else, "both campaigns are terrified at anything even remotely spontaneous happening."

Under this elaborate regime, the candidates "aren't permitted to ask each other questions, propose pledges to each other, or walk outside a 'predesignated area.'" Worse, "the audience members posing questions aren't allowed to ask follow-ups (their mics will be cut off as soon as they get their questions out). Nor will moderator Candy Crowley." The rules even "forbid television coverage from showing reaction shots of the candidates".

Link thanks to Alexei Panshin.

ETA: From NPR: That agreement is what the campaigns want from the debate, but it isn't binding on the moderator or the stations, so the moderator says she'll do follow-up questions if a candidate goes off topic, and there may be reaction shots in the broadcast.