26 October 2012
Who Won the Presidential Debates?
The objective of a Presidential Debate is not to win it on points. Perspiration on Nixon's brow did not lose his contest with Kennedy on debating points. The format of a debate has simply been used to provide another opportunity for the candidates to try to influence voters in our TV-dominated culture.
The real winner of the Presidential debates is the candidate who can use that format more effectively to draw voters to conclude he or she would better serve the voters' private interests. Part of being effective at achieving that goal is convincing the media that he or she won the debate--not on debating points but as a Public Relations victory. The majority of voters do not make up their own minds, nor know how or care to judge a performance on debating points. They rely on the media to tell them what to think.
Those of us who analyze a debate on the basis of fine points of fact and argumenting strategy fail to recognize that the Presidential election is not a method of selecting the best debater in the country. (Hopefully, if needed, the eventual President could hire a good debater for the White House staff.) No, the objective is to force undecided viewers and listeners to focus on the issues that the next President will have to resolve on their behalf and to persuade them that he or she is more likely reliably to accomplish favorable results. (Another objective is to avoid making the kind of gaf that people will remember long after election day.)
Those who judge the debates on debating points are unlikely to be undecided voters. The only ones whose voting behavior will be influenced by the debates are probably those whose minds will be made up by information spoon-feeders in the public media anyway. That's what made Ronald Reagan such a memorable and loved President--he was an effective influencer, regardless of the policies he espoused or executed. The winner of the Presidential debates is always the one who knows how to use them to push fence-sitters over to his or her side.
The objective of a Presidential Debate is not to win it on points. Perspiration on Nixon's brow did not lose his contest with Kennedy on debating points. The format of a debate has simply been used to provide another opportunity for the candidates to try to influence voters in our TV-dominated culture.
The real winner of the Presidential debates is the candidate who can use that format more effectively to draw voters to conclude he or she would better serve the voters' private interests. Part of being effective at achieving that goal is convincing the media that he or she won the debate--not on debating points but as a Public Relations victory. The majority of voters do not make up their own minds, nor know how or care to judge a performance on debating points. They rely on the media to tell them what to think.
Those of us who analyze a debate on the basis of fine points of fact and argumenting strategy fail to recognize that the Presidential election is not a method of selecting the best debater in the country. (Hopefully, if needed, the eventual President could hire a good debater for the White House staff.) No, the objective is to force undecided viewers and listeners to focus on the issues that the next President will have to resolve on their behalf and to persuade them that he or she is more likely reliably to accomplish favorable results. (Another objective is to avoid making the kind of gaf that people will remember long after election day.)
Those who judge the debates on debating points are unlikely to be undecided voters. The only ones whose voting behavior will be influenced by the debates are probably those whose minds will be made up by information spoon-feeders in the public media anyway. That's what made Ronald Reagan such a memorable and loved President--he was an effective influencer, regardless of the policies he espoused or executed. The winner of the Presidential debates is always the one who knows how to use them to push fence-sitters over to his or her side.
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