{"id":2949,"date":"2020-09-30T15:20:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/history\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2024-11-05T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:09:09","slug":"presidential-debates-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/2020\/09\/30\/presidential-debates-then-and-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Debates: then and now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first of the three scheduled presidential debates between the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was notable for its lack of actual debate.\u00a0 Described by CNN as \u201cthe most rancorous debate in history\u201d, it saw both candidates exchanging insults, the President constantly interrupting and speaking over Biden who in turn referred to Trump as a \u201cclown\u201d and eventually demanded \u201cWill you shut up, man?\u201d\u00a0 This was a far cry from the many previous debates in American presidential campaigns \u2013 and has led some commentators to question the usefulness of the debate format itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stephen
Stephen Douglas, left; Abraham Lincoln, right, from Julia Ward Howe\u2019s 1861 portrait.Sun-Times archives; National Portrait Gallery\/Julia Ward Howe\/AP photo. shorturl.at\/devwG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most observers see the famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for the Illinois senatorial seat in 1858 as the forerunner of the modern events.\u00a0 However, they were very different in style: there were seven of them around the state, each generally three hours long, with both candidates giving an hour-long statement, then answering challenges before his opponent did the same, and ending with summing up. Although Douglas won the election, the campaign projected Lincoln onto the national stage and led to him becoming the Republican presidential candidate in 1860.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Republican vice president Richard Nixon (L) and Democrat senator John F. Kennedy take part in a televised debate during their presidential campaign, 1960.\u00a0Photograph: Pictorial Parade\/Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The modern, televised debate can be traced back to the four famous exchanges between John F. Kennedy and the then Republican Vice-president, Richard M. Nixon in 1960.\u00a0 These too, were quite formal in terms of presentation and in reality the first was probably the most significant in that it gave the calm, cool, and handsome Kennedy greater credibility with the public, while Nixon seemed nervous and simply did not look as good. Radio audiences, however, thought Nixon had performed better than his opponent.\u00a0 However, it wasn\u2019t until the Ford-Carter debates in 1976 that televised exchanges became regular, established events. Ford\u2019s gaffe about Soviet control of Eastern Europe helped Carter to victory, but often the deciding factor in debates, as in 1960, was style over substance. Ronald Reagan\u2019s relaxed, self-deprecating style and humour helping him to victory in 1980 and 1984. In the disputed 2000 election the incumbent Al Gore came across as clumsy and aggressive, while George W. Bush remained calm and made no mistakes. In 2016 debates lost much of their formal style despite a structured format, as Donald Trump constantly interrupted Hillary Clinton and at one point even seemed to stalk her around the stage.\u00a0 What impact this had on the electorate was not clear \u2013 and again the election result was disputed as, like Bush, Trump won the electoral college vote despite losing the popular election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trump
Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speak during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Oct. 9, 2016, | Patrick Semansky\/AP Photo. shorturl.at\/flHS5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, how important are the debates in determining election outcomes?  The answer is unclear. Voters often see and hear what they want to, and these televised events are often important for appearance, and the ability to avoid making mistakes rather than substantial positive points. In many ways, the dictum of William Henry Harrison\u2019s political manager in 1840 remains true today: \u201cLet him say nothing, promise nothing\u201d, but perhaps remaining calm and statesman-like will count in Joe Biden\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first of the three scheduled presidential debates between the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump, and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was notable for its lack of actual debate.\u00a0 Described by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[765,510,241,543,767,376,704,165,368,768,772,399,766,707],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-american","tag-american-politics","tag-christian-oconnell-2","tag-donald-trump","tag-events","tag-higher-education-2","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-fitzgerland-kennedy","tag-media-2","tag-modern","tag-neil-wynn","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-uog","tag-us-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3255,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions\/3255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}