 |
 |
November 08, 2004 - 10:31 PM
Diary of the debates and what they have reduced themselves to
By Chris St. Charles
A long time ago, before the internet and just before the discovery of electricity, Presidential debates were an all-day affair. Although it was a debate between Senate candidates, the often cited Lincoln-Douglass debates, are held as a landmark where both candidates had rebuttals that lasted for at least an hour and a half.
|
|
Amazingly enough, those watching the debates of yore remained seated with great interest as the now loathed “nuance,” as well as the numerous literary, historical, and logical references were used to buttress one argument while refuting the other.
Things are much different today. Since the Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960, the first to be televised, perhaps the most significant truth of modern day politics, was learned: appearance trumps substance.
Polls indicated that those who listened to the debate on the radio thought that Nixon won, and those that watched it on the boob tube saw Kennedy as the clear victor.
Nixon was not a photogenic man to say the least, and his excessive perspiration due to illness caused his make-up to run. This was viewed by many as a telltale sign of an angst ridden person who simply wasn’t telling the truth, hence the viewer choice of Kennedy as the victor.
|
* * *
“Those that fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.”
During the three Presidential Debates in 2004, most prognosticators saw John Kerry as the clear victor. Even with the much higher expectations placed on him than the ones placed on his opponent, the junior Senator from Massachusetts delivered, or so we were led to believe.
|
|
The truth is that President Bush was not aware of the split-screen reaction shots that betrayed any outward sense of inner-calm and resoluteness. In common terms, the President looked really pissed when having to be quiet and listen to the merciless criticisms of Kerry, which looked bad on TV… really bad.
The actual substantive arguments made by either candidate really aren’t worth discussing, because there really weren’t any. The basic formula for Bush was that all he had to do was meet his assigned low expectations by answering the questions as best he could.
Unfortunately for the President, he fell below those expectations. Even if he hadn’t butchered any English, all he had to do was smirk like a spoiled brat. Kerry could’ve recited the alphabet, and he still would have won.
* * *
|
Next, we had the Vice Presidential debate in Cleveland. This was billed as a sort of “Thrilla' in Manila” outsourced to “The Mistake on The Lake.” In other words, we had a much more evenly matched contest with high expectations placed on both participants. What we got was a really boring and reserved series of personal attacks from both sides that were stuffed to the gills with misinformation.
Edwards got the numbers wrong on the total dollars spent in Iraq; Cheney claimed to have met Edwards “for the first time on this stage.” The news media quickly cleared these matters up for us, but little else. At some point, it was decided a close win by Cheney.
There were many comparisons to this debate, such as Dr. Evil v. Austin Powers, or Mr. Potter v Jimmy Stewart, but none of them really captured the absurdity of watching the whole thing.
* * *
The second presidential debate featured “The Town Hall format.” Most Americans are not familiar with the concept of “Town Hall Democracy,” or for that matter even basic physical “Town Hall.” So, they took the questions from the “regular folks”, and did their best to dis each other while responding. Kerry kept repeating “the Mantra;” he voted to give the president authority to go to war and not rush to war; he repeated the big part of his plan to call a world summit and get the Allies back on board.
President Bush scored major points by noticing that Kerry and Edwards call this “the wrong war at the wrong time” yet say they’ll still be able to convince the yet unconvinced. On the other hand, President Bush still talked over the moderator, Charlie Gibson from ABCs “Good Morning America”, making him still look like the spoiled little Ivy-Leaguer masquerading as “a regular guy.” This time, however, he at least evened out with his low expectations. Call it a draw with a slight Bush advantage.
The third presidential debate took place in Tempe, Arizona with the venerable CBS reporter, Bob Schiefer, as moderator. The focus was on domestic policy issues. As it was in the first debate, the format was of the standing at the podium variety. Most of Schiefer’s questions focused on economic policy, healthcare, and social security, but there were also questions about gun control, gay marriage, and faith.
President Bush’s responses were mostly painfully splayed sound bytes and humorless anecdotes that may have been somewhat funny if they had been heard after consuming a lot of liquor, preferably with the speaker doing the same. Bush also managed to channel Howard Dean with a loud “Whoaeee!” after a particularly terse verbal slam from the challenger.
Senator Kerry’s responses were filled with facts and figures, but it was a pop culture comparison that scored Kerry the most points. He compared, “being lectured by the president on fiscal responsibility to being lectured by Tony Soprano on law and order.” It’ll will go down as the Lloyd Benston, “Senator, you’re no John Kennedy.” Kerry won again, if only because he’s the better debater.
The hot button issue came after the actual debate. Kerry received many a tongue lashing from the cable news talking heads over his reference to Dick Cheney’s daughter being a lesbian, and that she should be treated with the same dignity as any other American.
For some reason this shouldn’t have been fair game. Why not? It was the president that attempted a constitutional amendment to forbid gay people from ever being totally included in our democracy. Nonetheless, there were no startling revelations by either candidate. All we know for sure is that they really disagree with each other on a whole bunch of issues. In fact, the Pres pointed that out often.
What will remain to be seen is the overall effect of the debates on the election itself, if any. In the week to come, Bush will be a campaigning ninja warrior. His advisors believe that is his strongest suit. Kerry will do the same, but will it be enough? Kerry has had many difficulties framing his positions in the solid, easy to read format that so many Americans look for and expect from their president or president to be.
Links
· The Lincoln-Douglas debates text
· Sites and background on the Lincoln-Douglas debates
· Museum.tv --- Televised Debate History
· Museum.tv --- “The Great Debate: View Nixon-Kennedy 1960”
· JFK Library --- “Radio Broadcast of Nixon-Kennedy Debate”
· Breaking-News --- “Bush’s Smirk and Kerry’s Smile send the wrong message”
Contact Information
· chrissc@queencityforum.com
|
|
| |
|
|
