Despite all the media hype, presidential debates have very little bearing on how people vote on Election Day. Instead, they tend to merely reinforce voters’ pre-existing feelings about the candidates. This means that who won the debate is invariably in the eye of the beholder.
[The McCain-Obama “debate” of 08: round I, The iPINIONS Journal, September 28, 2008]
That said, I hope it is clear to you by now that what passes for political debate in America is little more than an occasion for candidates to parrot to a national audience the talking points they’ve been testing out on partisan crowds on the campaign trail.
This of course was made manifestly clear when Sarah Palin declared that she had no intention of answering any of the moderator’s questions or engaging Joe Biden during their vice presidential debate last Thursday.
Therefore, it is a testament to media hype – for unabashedly crass commercial purposes – that these dog and pony shows continually draw so much public interest. Never mind that the interest in watching is invariably more to see vaudevillian zingers or gaffes than to be informed about the pressing issues of the day, which was clearly the case when over 70 million viewers tuned in to watch Palin and Biden go at it.
But John McCain and Barack Obama demonstrated tonight that nothing is a greater farce in this respect than the Town Hall format of presidential debates.
Because the notion that candidates would ever be more inclined to answer questions posed by “Joe Six-Pack” than they are to answer those posed by a professional news anchor is patently absurd; especially since this format precludes the opportunity to ask follow up questions.
Moreover, it is an indication of how staged these Town Hall debates are that of the six million questions voters reportedly e-mailed in, the moderator, Tom Brokaw of NBC News, selected only six to ask; and of the 80 purportedly uncommitted voters invited into the Town Hall, the moderator screened all of their questions and decided which 12 of them would have the honor of reading their questions at the candidates.
On the other hand, this format at least gives the candidates the opportunity to fake empathy with the pain and concerns of ordinary folks. Perhaps you recall that it was a Town Hall debate where that congenital narcissist Bill Clinton sealed his reputation as a leader who feels voters’ pain simply because he pursed his lips and affected emotional interest when one of them prefaced her question with a hard-luck story.
Well, tonight, neither John nor Barack proved as effective at faking empathy as Bill did; but not for lack of trying. In fact, both candidates actually played against type by emoting as they never have before.
However, even though a die-hard Obama supporter, I am constrained to note that he lost a few debating points by showing the same emotion when he spoke about cutting taxes as he showed when he spoke about his mother dying of cancer while fighting her health insurance provider for benefits. That, alas, was a Michael Dukkakis gaffe (remember that … him?)
By the same token, McCain lost a few himself by referring to Obama, patronizingly, as “that one.” That, alas, was a Ross Perot gaffe (i.e., “you people,” remember that?).
At any rate, since I’m obliged to declare a winner: it’s Obama! Not only because his answers were a little more on point than McCain’s, but also because he articulated them far more coherently and persuasively. But I thought McCain did a little better relating to the questioners – if only by occasionally thanking them for their questions and remembering their names.
NOTE: I found it ironic that while promising to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, McCain and Obama were demonstrating that they cannot even keep the promises they made to abide by the time limits and other rules they negotiated for the conduct of this debate.
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The McCain-Obama “debate” of ’08: round I
*Published originally last night at 11:14 pm
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