had public meetings related to the Jay Treaty which was leaked to the early press by sitting senators. Some political organizations track publicized town hall events by politicians across the United States. The 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in some respects resembled a modern town hall meeting, although the candidates did not take questions from the audience. Not until the twentieth century did presidential candidates commonly campaign in person. Gradually, especially from the 1990s onward, presidential town hall meetings have become nearly as common as stump speeches. Richard Nixon's 1968 U.S. Presidential campaign staged nine live televised question and answer sessions using a ground-breaking theatre-in-the-round format broadcast with a live studio television audience and local residents directly asking questions of the candidate. The producer of Nixon's "Man in the Arena" live town-hall programs was Roger Ailes, who later went to on start Fox News. Ailes' use of a direct voter-to-candidate question-and-answer format served as the blueprint for subsequent and now ubiquitous town hall candidate formats and even multiple-candidate debates. Another step in the development of the modern town hall meeting came on March 16, 1977, when President Carter attended a televised town hall meeting in Clinton, Massachusetts, that was "modeled after" a real town meeting but did not include binding votes. Bill Clinton made town hall meetings a part of his presidential campaign. Interest in town halls fluctuates depending on the level of public interest in the topics being discussed. Controversial or confusing issues that are prominently discussed in the news have led to more town halls being held. Since the 2000s, town halls held by political candidates have announced and enforced rules on crowd behavior and the scope of questions that may be asked. 21st century meetings Detailed article: List of significant United States town hall meetings In 2009, Tea Party groups opposed to the proposed health care reform legislation began attending town halls to express their disagreement with the legislation. The large and vocal crowds led some representatives to cancel or scale back their town hall events. Representative Brian Baird canceled his live town hall meetings after receiving death threats, choosing to hold a telephone conference call with his constituents instead. Town hall meetings by teleconference or online grew in popularity. Obama held some as sitting President, starting in 2011. Federal agencies have held town halls on Twitter since at least 2013. Some politicians have