(10) Presidential Debate rules of thumb + Viewer figures

Style is often more important than substance
1. In the second Bush-Clinton debate in 1992, the camera caught Bush at one moment looking at his watch. He appeared eager to end his discomfort
2. In the first Gore-Bush debate in 2000, Gore appeared overly made-up. He interrupted Bush frequently and, While Bush was answering, made audience signs. and rolling his eyes. Within days, Gore was being ridiculed on Saturday Night Live as a "smarty pants". Just after the start of the second debate, Gore strode across the stage to stand right next to Bush while the latter was still speaking. Bush merely gave him a quizzical glance.
3. In the first 2012 debate, President Obama was widely critised for the passive style which he adopted throughout. Again, it wasn't so much the President did or did not say as his manner and style that lost him that debate
Verbal Gaffes can be costly
1. When, in 1976, President Ford mistakenly claimed that Poland wasn't under Soviet Control, it was an expensive error.
2. When, in 1980, President Carter tried to personalise an answer by, mentioning how he and his 10-year-old daughter Amy had talked about nuclear weapons, the cartoon artist had a field day at Carters expense
3. In 2000, Gore was caught out in the first debate making some exaggerated claims to which the Bush campaign immediately drew attention after the debate
4. There were no obvious or serious gaffes by the candidates during the 2012 debate, although the following remark by Romney during the second debate when talking about his attempts to appoint women to top jobs when he was governor of Massachuetts caused a few chuckles at the governor's expense; "I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women."
Good sound bites are helpful
1. Many voters see the sound bites on television networks
2. In 1996 when debating Senator Dole, President Clinton was asked weather he thought 73-year-old Bob Dole was too old to be president. His answer provided a perfect sound bit: "I don't think Senator Dole is too old to be president. It's the age of his ideas that I question
3. In 2008, John McCain got a good sound bite at Barack Obamas expense when Obama kept on trying to link McCain to the unpopular President George W. Bush. " Senator, I am not President Bush," commented John McCain. "If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run 4 years ago
4. In the final debate in 2012, President Obama accused Governor Romney of favouring "the forging policy of the 1980s, the social policy of the 1950s, and the economic policy of the 1920's
Debates are potentially more difficult for incumbents than for challengers
1. Incumbents have a record to defend and they have words spoken 4 years early to defend. In 1980, challenger Ronald Reagan had jauntily dismissed Presidents Carter's attacks with a nod of the head, a smile and the words: "There you go again." Four years later Reagan unwisely tried the same phrase on challenger Walter Mondale, who was ready for it: "You went out and tried to cut $20 Billion out of Medicare.
  1. The supposed-to-be-silent audience burst into applause and Reagan looked distinctly uncomfortable.
2. But not only do incumbents have a record to defend, they also nearly always go into the debates as the perceived front-runner, hence expectations on them are higher. We saw that this was a problem for President Obama in 2012. Also, the debate format itself is a greater leveller
  1. That he challenger appears on the same platform as the president of the United States and has equal air time brings the president down to the level of an ordinary politician. Furthermore, presidents often go into the debates somewhat rusty in their debate technique.
3. Between June 2011 and Febuary 2012, Governor Romney participated in 19 debates with his fellow Republican presidential candidates. In contrast, the last time President Obama had appeared in a televised debate was October 2008.
Viewing figures
1. Viewing figures for the debates vary significantly from one election cycle to another. The all-time high point for presidential debate viewership is still the 1980 debate between President and Carter and his Challenger Ronald Reagan, which logged nearly 81 million viewers.
2. The presidential debates of 1984 and 1992 averaged around 66 million viewers, while the debates in 1996 and 2000 were watched by an average of only 40 million viewers. However, the last three elections have seen a significant increase in viewers numbers with an average of 53.4 million in 2004, 57.4 million in 2008 and 64 million in 2012
3. What was extraordinary in 2008, however, was the over 69 million who watched the vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. It even beat the estimated 67 million who watched the vice-presidential debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen back in 1988. In contrast, fewer than 29 million people watched the debate between Dick Chencey and Joe Lieberman in 2000.

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(10) Presidential Debate rules of thumb + Viewer figures

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