Basic Info About Presidential Debates
1) Who sponsors the Presidential Debates?
2) Types of Debates – Toughest type
3) What criteria do you have to meet to participate in a
debate?
4) Is a candidate required to participate in a debate?
5) Why Debate?
6) Basics and
historic examples
Basic Info About Presidential Debates
1) Who sponsors the Presidential Debates?
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)
was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a
permanent part of every general election.
Primary purpose is to:
1) Sponsor and produce debates for the United States
presidential and vice presidential candidates
2) Undertake research and educational activities
relating to the debates.
Basic Info About Presidential Debates
2) What criteria do you have to meet to participate
in a debate? ALL 3!
• Constitutionally eligible to be President
• Ballot access in enough states to win a majority
of electoral votes (> or = 270)
• National support of > or = 15% of the voters
Basic Info About Presidential Debates
3) Is a candidate required to participate in a
debate?
NO (but if not, may be quite damaging) – How?
Why Debate?
1) National test of a candidate's ability to convey
their message
2) Candidates trailing in the polls or confident in their
abilities have always proposed debates in an effort
to gain an edge over a competitor
For the voters (make or break point) "The debates are part
of just seeing the candidate in action and getting a sense of
him as a person in real time dealing with pressure."
Prior to a debate, the two major campaign
teams and the Commission haggle over the
details, such as:
# of questions,
the format,
the height of the podium,
who will be the moderator,
controlled audience,
location, glasses or bottles of
water
Before the debates con’t
• THEN, the two campaigns agree to a
"memorandum of understanding" over how
this round of debates should be conducted.
– The Commission on Presidential Debates doesn't
sign off on the document
• It is not an official set of campaign guidelines.
– But the commission is largely controlled by
the parties, and it thus they tend to follow
the rules as laid out in such memoranda
Candidates PREPARE!
Ex: Election 2004 (Kerry vs. Bush)
• Bush  rehearsals at
his Texas ranch, Camp
David and the White
House
• Kerry Read Bush's
campaign speeches to
find potential lines of
attack
Both candidates held mock sessions, videotaped them to critique and review
*Had fill-ins for the other
candidatehttp://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-19-presidential-
Let's take a look at the
debates of the 2008 Race
for the White House
•
Participants:
John McCain - Republican
•
Barack Obama - Democrat
First Debate - Fri, Sept. 26th - University of Mississippi - moderator Jim Lehrer; FOCUS foreign policy and national security, but due to the financial crisis, a portion of the
debate was focused on economic issues
– 90 minutes (divided into 9 9-min issue segments, allowing the candidates to discuss selected topics,
answer follow-ups from the moderator and directly address each other
•
Second Debate - Tues, Oct 7th - Belmont University, Nashville Tennessee - moderator
Tom Brokaw - TOWN HALL MEETING FORMAT
– Voters (either present at the debate or via the Internet), posed questions on a topic of their choice
and Moderator would ask follow-up questions
•
Third Debate - Wed, Oct 15th - Hofstra University, New York - moderator Bob Schieffer FOCUS - domestic and foreign policy
– Same as first debate
•
ONE VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE - Thurs, Oct 2nd - Washington University in Missouri moderator Gwen Ifill - FOCUS - foreign and domestic topics
• MAINLY TALK UP THEIR RUNNING MATE
2008 Debates - # of Viewers
• First presidential debate
Audience: 52.4 million viewers (36.2 million households).
Second presidential debate
Audience: 63.2 million viewers (44.4 million households).
• Third presidential debate
Audience: 56.5 million viewers (40.0 million households).
• Vice presidential debate
Audience: 69.9 million viewers
(47.8 million households).
Third Party Candidates left in the cold
• Had 2 of their own debates • 1) Oct 15th Columbia University
• 2) Oct 23rd Washington D.C.
• Participating Candidates included:
• Ralph Nader (Independent)
• Chuck Baldwin (Constitution)
• Cynthia Nixon (Green Party)
• **Another candidate Bob Barr of Libertarian Party
invited - but declined to participate (schedule conflicts)
Toughest Type - The Town Hall Debate
• Def: The questions (prescreened) come from
uncommitted voters
(variety of socioeconomic, racial and
political backgrounds).
• The candidates can
sometimes face curve
balls
• As compared to the
Formal Debates:
– When political reporters
are posing the questions,
the candidates usually
have a good idea what to
expect
• *Like our debate
tomorrow
Town Hall Format con’t
• Roughly 12 audience
members out of about 80
will get to ask questions
– Prescreened
• Questioners who deviate
from the question they
said they would ask run
the risk of having their
microphones cut off,
– Unlikely that such a step
would be taken unless the
question is clearly out of
bounds.
Advantage – Voters can see
their candidates think on
their feet
*more natural
*more personal connection
*how the candidate acts
under pressure
Major Focus in Presidential Debate history...
- 1992 Debate (Perot, Clinton, and Bush)
Why?
1) First time 3 candidates shared a single stage in a televised debate
2) 4 Debates - all within a 9 day period (Largest audience to ever watch a presidential debate)
•
HOWEVER IT WASN'T ALL NICE...
•
Step Back - When Bill Clinton secured the Democrat's Party nomination in spring of 1992, polls showed:
•
ROSS PEROT leading the race, followed by PRESIDENT BUSH, with BILL CLINTON in third place
•
(In a 2 way trial between BUSH and CLINTON, BUSH showed the lead)
•
But the economy under BUSH continued to grow sour - President's approval slide downward
•
When CLINTON chooses GORE to be Vice President, PEROT dropped out of race (convinced if he stayed in the race,
it would be decided in the House of Representatives)
•
CLINTON campaign had biggest bounce in history (went from 25% to 55 % [BUSH dropped to 31%])
•
BUSH/QUAYLE Campaign began to hammer away at CLINTON's character (accusations of cheating, draft-dodging)
•
•
PEROT re-enters the race (WELCOMED BY BUSH CAMPAIGN) - allowed to participate in 3 debates
However, CLINTON did not want him back in the race
•
PEROT's numbers significantly improved as CLINTON's numbers began to decline, while BUSH's numbers stayed the
same
1992 – Oops moment – Town Hall
• George H.W. Bush was the first to
respond to a question about how
the national debt has affected
the candidates personally.
– The questioner pressed the
wealthy president to talk about
his own experience, prompting
him to respond at one point, "are
you suggesting that if somebody
has means, that the national
debt doesn't affect them?
– “I'm not sure I get it." Mr. Bush
later recovered to some extent,
but it was an awkward moment.
Famous debate moment: Bush, Sr. checks his
watch in 1992
And it only got worse:
•
•
When Mr. Bush finished, Bill Clinton
approached the woman and asked,
"tell me how it's affected you again?"
He then said, in part, "in my state,
when people lose their jobs, there's a
good chance I'll know them by their
names.“
It was one of those moments that gave rise to
the notion that Mr. Clinton was particularly
good at feeling the pain of the American
people.
Mr. Bush, meanwhile, was caught by
the cameras checking his watch.
What happened?
• On November 3, Bill Clinton won the election
to be the 42nd President of the United States
Received 43% of the popular vote
against:
Bush's 37% and Perot's 19%
• Be careful what you say
• What happened? Let's take a look...
• First Debate
John McCain - repeatedly referred to his experience, drawing on stories
from the past; often joked of his age
Critics - he seemed to mock Obama; Didn't look at or talk directly to
Obama during the debate - DISRESPECTFUL
Obama - Tied McCain in with Bush Administration (referring to
mistakes); repeatedly laid out his plans
• Second Debate
Critics of John McCain - Referred to Obama as "that one"; and wandered
around aimlessly about the stage during the debate while Obama was
speaking
The Spin Room
also known as spin row or spin alley
• What is this?
– is an area in which reporters can speak with debate
participants and/or their representatives after a
debate.
– The name refers to the fact that the participants will
attempt to "spin" or influence the perception of the
debate among the assembled reporters
– As a reporter - HAVE complete access - with audio,
video and photos from debate.
• For a U.S. presidential debate, the number of
reporters in the spin room can number into the
thousands.
• complete with audio, video and photos. For a
U.S. presidential debate, the number of
reporters in the spin room can number into
the thousands.[4]