News-Record.com

From the N.C. Democratic Party:

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Democratic Party announced today that Raleigh’s RBC Center will be the site for the April 27th Democratic Presidential Debate.

It will be held in partnership with North Carolina State University and CBS News.

CBS will broadcast the 90-minute live debate, beginning at 8 p.m., immediately following 60 Minutes. Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer will moderate.

“North Carolinians are excited about the opportunity to hear from both candidates, right here in our state about the issues that are important to us,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek. “Both candidates have said our May 6 primary is important to them and have agreed to a CBS debate in North Carolina.”

“Their participation in this debate will be the clearest indication of North Carolina’s importance in this process,” Meek said.

The RBC Center is home to the N.C. State University men’s basketball team and the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.

Seating will be limited due to a special set-up for the televised debate. For more information, monitor our website, www.ncdp.org.

The Obama folks say they're not sold on the date. From a campaign spokesperson:

Senator Obama has debated Senator Clinton more than 20 times so far, and our campaign agreed to another debate in North Carolina that was proposed for the third week of April. Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign vetoed that date. We are still determining whether or not the later date works for Senator Obama’s schedule.

I have a hard time figuring that Obama would not rearrange his schedule to take advantage of that kind of air time, but I've been wrong before.