How you can watch—and participate in—the live Slate/Intelligence Squared debate Oct. 4 at NYU.

About the Debaters

For the motion:

Margaret Hoover is a Fox News Contributor and the author of the book American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party. Hoover is a veteran of the Bush Administration White House, where she worked in the Office of Management and Budget and served as associate director in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. She's also worked on two presidential campaigns, at the Department of Homeland Security, and on Capitol Hill. Hoover is committed to renewing the Republican Party to enable it to connect with a new generation of Americans, by embracing a conservatism that emphasizes individual freedom and fiscal conservativism as its central pillars.

Mort Zuckerman is chairman and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report and publisher of the New York Daily News. He is also the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Boston Properties. A frequent commentator on The McLaughlin Group, Zuckerman argues, "A new era of American austerity is the only way to put things right." A recipient of three honorary degrees and a graduate of McGill University, McGill Law School, Wharton Graduate School of Business, and Harvard Law School, Zuckerman is a trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering and a member of the International Peace Institute, the Bank of America Global Wealth & Investment Management Committee, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Against the motion:

Howard Dean is theformer DNC Chairman and governor of Vermont. In 1982, Dean transitioned from a full-time practicing physician to an elected representative in Vermont, serving as governor for 12 years. Dean left office in 2003 to run for president, during which he implemented innovative fundraising strategies via the Internet. During his tenure as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dean created the "50-state strategy," a strategy credited with helping Democrats make historic gains in 2006 and 2008. A graduate of Yale University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Howard Dean currently works as an independent consultant focusing on health care, early childhood development, alternative energy, and the expansion of grassroots politics around the world.

Jeff Madrick, a former economics columnist for the New York Times and current editor of Challenge magazine, is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. The author of several award-winning books, Madrick recently authored Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present, a Publishers Weekly Top Ten pick for spring 2011 and a Washington Post political bestseller. Age of Greed outlines a vivid history of how greed bred America's economic ills and of the men most responsible for it. Madrick has also served as a policy consultant and speech writer for Senator Edward M. Kennedy and other U.S. legislators.

The moderator:

John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served as ABC White House correspondent, along with postings in Moscow, London, Jerusalem, and Amman.