They’re here….
It’s debate time!
So let’s debate about debates…
Do they really matter?
Do you watch them?
Do you care?
I know you do! Doesn’t everybody?
We know most are watching to learn about the candidates, right?
No one is watching to see who will flip or flop.
Who will totally fall apart or have a, heaven forbid, wardrobe malfunction.
Who will come up with the next best line…you know, “lock box.”
No, we are all there only for the issues.
Yeah, right...
Sen. John F. Kennedy (r) speaks
and Vice President Richard Nixon
listens during the fourth presidential
debate from a New York TV studio, 21 Oct 1960
The first televised presidential debate was held during the election campaign of 1960.
"The candidates need no introduction," said the debate moderator Howard K. Smith. "The Republican candidate is Vice President Richard M. Nixon and the Democratic candidate is Senator John F. Kennedy."
Kennedy's youthful appearance helped him on television. Nixon suffered from a cold and bad makeup.
"I think in the final analysis, it depends on what we do here. I think it is time America started moving again," Kennedy said.
"There is no question but that we cannot discuss our internal affairs in the United States without recognizing that they have a tremendous bearing on our international position," said Nixon.
Those who watched the debates on television generally thought Kennedy was the winner. Many of those who listened on radio gave the edge to Nixon.
Kennedy narrowly won the election that year. And even though Nixon eventually won two presidential elections in 1968 and 1972, he never took part in another presidential debate.
In the 1976 election campaign, incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford trailed badly in the polls for much of the year behind his Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.
Ford nearly came back to win the election that year, but stumbled in one of his debates with Carter when he tried to argue that Eastern Europe was not controlled by the Soviet Union.
"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," he said.
While much attention is paid to what is said in the debates, they can also be won or lost based on how the candidates speak and even their non-verbal body language.
Continued HERE Voice of America
