Describe at least three of the debate strategies we’ve seen so far this year
(drawing on Trent et al Ch. 8).How
would you characterize the news media coverage of the debates?
When it comes to debates, regardless of political position, there are many strategies behind a successful debate. You must learn to strategize before the debate, during the debate, and after the debate, as Trent et al describe in their book, Political Communication. We have noticed both President Obama and Governor Romney utilizing some of the strategies discussed for their campaign and debate preparations. Such strategies include relating issues to an overall theme (Trent et al 273), develop and maintain an image (Trent et al 274), and the usage of audience members to project a positive view on how the debate went (Trent et al 282). These strategies have become imperative during today’s politics and candidates have almost become forced to debate. As Trent et al write, “Today, presidential candidates risk the possibility of severe backlash if they decline to debate” (Trent et al 265). The idea of backing out of a debate relates back to the candidate’s image, and how candidates are immediately judged as soon as they decide to even run, as we noticed Romney amongst other potential GOP candidates during the primaries. Therefore, image is by far one of the most parts of debate strategies before the debate, during the debate, as well as afterward. When considering the days before the first presidential debate on October third, media stories and discussions started to influence people on what they should expect from the candidates. These expectations were somewhat affected by the images of the candidates we had up until that point in the election. As CBS News writer, Lucy Madison, writes, “ The stakes are enormous for Mitt Romney," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist…’He goes into the debate behind, after a difficult summer, a failed convention, and a series of self-inflicted wounds in September. The hour is growing short to make up ground and come from behind in the swing states where he needs to win if he wants to become elected president’ (Madison). In other words, until the first debate, the media analyzed what has happened during Romney’s campaign for presidency and the mishaps that negatively affected his image and put Obama in the lead of voting polls. Therefore, a strategy behind debating is to obtain a positive image to sway voters and allow Americans to determine if an individual candidate, whether he is a challenger or incumbent, “can be trusted with the responsibilities of the presidency” (Madison). With their image, many people are also introduced to the types of plans/goals of each candidate and the themes behind their campaigns. Another strategy behind the debating is to introduce and exemplify overall themes of each candidate’s campaign. Since the national conventions almost two months ago, Americans have begun to hear some of the themes behind each candidate: Barack Obama’s “Forward” slogan, as well as Mitt Romney’s “Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose”- which according to CNN, may be backfired because Romney allegedly stole the slogan from the television show Friday Night lights (Will Romney Punt His Slogan?). This article, along with other aspects of media, clearly exemplifies the affect of media on these campaign themes. Romney’s image may be affected now that the “writer-director Peter Berg sent a letter to Romney's campaign Friday [saying] ‘I was not thrilled when I saw that you have plagiarized this expression to support your campaign…Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series’ (Will Romney Punt His Slogan?). This exemplifies how fast the candidate’s themes and slogans, along with any promises they make as they answer questions during the debates can become so well known as they are repeated constantly throughout the campaign and becoming memorable for Americans.
Finally, a third strategy behind the debates are to use audience members to project a positive view on how the debate went, including who was the more of the “winner” of the debate, and how the media may influence the reactions and opinions of audiences watching the debates. When considering the vice presidential debate from last Thursday, many media outlets were determining if Joe Biden had made up for Obama’s weak performance in the first presidential debate earlier this month. ABC News reporter, Abby D. Phillip, discussed the contrasting views, behaviors, and even body language between Biden and Ryan during the VP Debate in her article, “VP Debate: Body Language Expert Sees Big Contrast.” Phillip states, “If Vice President Joe Biden channeled his inner pit bull, Rep. Paul Ryan brought his inner puppy to the debate stage, according to facial expression expert Chris Kowal. ‘ [Paul Ryan's] looks of surprise and the smile that he has…he comes across as very cute and likable…when you pair it up with the more aggressive bull dog type of Joe Biden, people are going to become more protective of their candidate as a result” (Phillip). In other words, Biden seemed more aggressive according to this news article, where as Ryan seemed more gentile and naïve since he is still very new to politics and debating. Hence, as Trent et al write, “Most students of political debate believe that the effects often lag behind the debate itself. Frequently, audience members do not reach final judgment until they have discussed the debate with others and have observed the media reaction” (Trent 280). In other words, the media does have an effect on what our opinions are on politics, since they can take certain aspects of debates and/or speeches to exaggerate certain points. Furthermore, any controversy or falsehoods that are released during political campaigning are most likely to be covered by the media for the sake of the public’s access to news and information.
Works Cited Madison, Lucy. "The First Debate: High Stakes for Obama, Romney." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. .
Phillip, Abby D. "VP Debate: Body Language Expert Sees Big Contrast." ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
"Will Romney Punt His Slogan?" CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Political debate strategies have played an important role in the 2012 debates. One that has played a significant role throughout the last few weeks of this election is that of lowering public expectations. Trent explains the importance of the lowering of expectations in her book titled, Political Campaign Communication, writing, “If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover, if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well, it may be perceived as a major victory (Trent et. Al. 267). In the weeks leading up to the election, candidates and their parties go out of their way to both put themselves down and praise their opponent. The media have conveyed numerous different instances throughout the 2012 campaign in which both the republican and democratic parties speak of their nominee’s shortcoming when it comes to debate strategy, preparedness, and oratory skill in general. Jen Psaki, the presidential traveling press secretary, spoke of Obama’s unpreparedness. She explained how the “constraints of governing” have kept the president from studying for the debate (The Week). Psaki continued, stating, “Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history” (The Week). She even went so far as to state that the president, “could even fall off the stage” (The Week). However, Obama’s team is not the only one guilty of lowering expectations of their candidate. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke of his “doubts” for his running mate, explaining, "Obama is a very gifted speaker. The man has been on the national stage for many years. He's an experienced debater; he's done these kinds of debates before. This is Mitt's first time on this kind of a stage" (The Week). With expectations low for their candidate’s success and high for their opponent’s, parties hope that viewers will both hold the opponent to a higher standard and be impressed if their candidate does even remotely well. Another strategy that has been apparent throughout the 2012 debates is that of using ads to underscore debate themes. The advertisements are used to emphasize the highlights of a candidate’s debate and ensure that viewers are made aware of the major points made throughout the program. TIME Magazine described one of the more prominent post debate advertisements released by Romney’s campaign team, writing, “a new television advertisement [used] footage from running mate Paul Ryan‘s debate last week with Vice President Joe Biden. The ad features clips of Ryan saying the government “can’t keep spending money we don’t have.” His comments are juxtaposed with video from the debate of Biden laughing (TIME). Through this commercial, displayed both via television and internet, Romney’s campaign attempts to portray the idea that Ryan is a candidate that will take the nation’s issues seriously while Biden is not.
Viewers have also witnessed the debate strategy of devising and rehearsing possible answers through the media coverage of this year’s presidential debates. Prior to the debates, viewers tuned in to be informed of both candidates’ participation in mock debates in order to prepare for the challenges that they would be facing in the upcoming presidential debates. The candidates also met with their advisors in order to discuss preparations for the debates and to anticipate the questions they will need to answer in order to emerge victorious. Trent discussed the importance of this, writing, “the candidate and a limited number of aides should work through possible questions and answers, consistently keeping in mind overall themes and target audiences” (Trent et. All 271). CBS reported that, “Romney and his top aides held a practice session Saturday morning at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio”, and went on to discuss Obama’s trip to his James River golf resort where the president will prep for upcoming debate (CBS). The media coverage of the presidential debates throughout the 2012 campaign so far can be characterized as extremely critical. The media makes it almost impossible for candidates to slip through the cracks with an unconfirmed or incorrect piece of information within their debate. Candidates must ensure that each piece of information that they present throughout the debate is correct in order to prevent the attack dog like journalists within the media. Overall, the candidates participating in the 2012 debates can rest assured that each and every thing that they say upon the debate stage will resonate highly with voters. It is up to them and their advisors to use specific debate strategies in order to ensure that the resonation has a positive effect that could potentially lead the candidate to the big leather chair in the oval office and the title of The President of the United States of America.
Work Cited
"The Presidential Debate: 8 Ridiculous Attempts to Lower Expectations." The Week. N.p., 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Cordes, Nancy. "Obama Preps in Va. for 2nd Debate Showdown." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Throughout this election season we have seen many classic debate strategies. Candidates are using tactics such as reducing expectations, repeating themes, and just simply practicing. Even the decision to debate has purpose this year. “If the election seems as though it will be close and both candidates are in doubt about the outcome, the likelihood of political debates is greatly increased” (Trent et al. 265). Although debates are now considered common, the polls indicate that this is going to be a very close election. According to the Gallup polls on October 15th, Obama is leading with 48% of registered voters while Romney is at 46%. However, with likely voters, Romney is up at 49% with Obama trailing at 47%. With such close percentages, the debates have become extremely important in swaying undecided voters during this election season. One strategy that both Obama and Romney have used this season is to reduce expectations through the media before going in to the debates. For example in “What’s Behind the Debate Expectations Game,” Caldwell states that “Ryan's spokesperson Brendan Buck also called Biden ‘as experienced a debater as anyone in national politics’ and noted that ‘this is Congressman Ryan's first time on this big stage.’” By saying that Ryan is inexperienced, candidates and their campaigns allow for the audience to see greater accomplishments in a typical debate. “By minimalizing expectations campaigners feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize for a weak one” (Trent et al. 268). Since we, as audience members, do not expect much from a candidate, they have the ability to shine greater than if we had higher expectations of them. Another strategy used by candidates is to relate all issues covered in a debate to an overall theme. Obama demonstrated this in the last Presidential election by using words like hope and change to direct his campaign. He is also repeating this strategy again with this season’s word, “forward.” Romney is also capitalizing on a theme after the first presidential debate held two weeks ago. Martha T. Moore from usatoday.com states that “three new ads from the Romney campaign released today hit on themes the Republican candidate highlighted in his well-received debate performance against President Obama: jobs, debt and disappointment in Obama's four years as president.” By hammering these themes into viewers’ heads, Romney is allowing for his main points to stick. When voters think of Romney, they will begin to think of these ideas associated with him.
A third strategy we have seen a lot of this year is that of practice. For the weeks leading up to the first debate, as well as continuing on throughout, the media have discussed how much practice the candidates are getting. For instance, Fox.com stated, “following a listless first debate, Obama was working with aides on more pointed and aggressive responses to Romney. The campaign's game plan is also to target Romney for what it sees as a willingness to shift his positions to make them more palatable for voters.” Both candidates are learning from experience and how to improve as each debate is completed. Trent et. al explains that practice should be conducted “…in a relaxed atmosphere [where] the candidate and a limited number of aides should work through possible questions and answers, consistently keeping in mind the overall themes and target audiences” (271). Simply by practicing and doing run-throughs of questions, candidates gain confidence and fluidity in their public speaking abilities. So far, the media coverage of the debates has been both critical and admirable. When Obama failed to impress during the first presidential debate, many pundits strongly expressed their disappointment, as we saw in many of the political comedy videos last week. They have also stated how exactly both candidates need to improve in order to win the next debate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/14/romney-obama-hunker-down-for-debate-prep/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2012/10/05/romney-obama-political-advertising-greg-anthony/1615243/ (Martha T. Moore) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57529085/whats-behind-the-debate-expectations-game/ (Leigh Ann Caldwell) http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx
Political debates have become a very important process during the presidential campaigns. Something that used to not be that widespread is now nationwide. For instance in “Political Campaign Communication” the author states, “During the nineteenth century, debating was an important aspect of campaigning, though perhaps not as widespread as it is today. However, a few debates of local or statewide interest did take place. Although Lincoln and Douglas had gained national attention, figures equal stature did not engage in campaign debates in the years that followed. Rather than debating their opponents, in the nineteenth century many candidates utilized surrogate debaters. This practice was especially widespread in nineteenth-century presidential elections. Nevertheless, relatively few nineteenth-century debates received attention beyond their own constituencies, and none attained national prominence” (Trent, 260). It was not until the early 1900s that debates seemed to be a realistic nationwide thing. “By the mid-1920s, due to the growth of radio, national debates began to seem feasible” (Trent, 261). Now, although political debates are still not required, they are pretty much a consistent part of the campaigning process. Debating has become so intense and important that nowadays, as mentioned in “Political Campaign Communication” there are strategies that candidates follow in order to debate more successfully and maybe use the debates to get people to vote for them, as well. During this presidential debate year there have been many strategies used. One important strategy that has been used during this past debate was a pre-debate strategy called “devising and rehearsing possible answers” (Trent, 271). There is evidence of Mitt Romney for instance, rehearsing his answers and also possibly looking at old Bill Clinton debates to enhance his debates for this presidential election. Another strategy that has been used is a debate strategy called “relating issues to an overall theme” (Trent, 273). For instance, Obama has used the theme in his campaigning that the country is moving forward with his help, and during the debates his themes have been the same, about keeping this country moving forward. The last strategy that has been used during this debate is a post-debate strategy and is called “using ads to underscore debate themes” (Trent, 282). For instance, Obama did not do as well as people thought he would do during the last debate and because of that he has used technology such as the internet to advertise his best moments in the debate to make people see the best parts that he delivered (Trent, 282).
Matthew Struzzi Blog 6 continued There has been a lot of news media coverage on the past debate and it has been very tough. Most news sources are saying that Obama lost and Mitt Romney won. Still after almost two weeks there is news media coverage on the last presidential debate. For instance, the New York Times said in an article, “But as Mr. Obama huddled with close aides on the spectacular resort grounds of what was the Kingsmill Plantation in the 17th century, the history that dominated his presidential study sessions was of a far more recent kind: how not to repeat the mistakes he made at his first debate with Mitt Romney a week and a half ago, when he stood by passively as an aggressive Mr. Romney dominated him, abruptly curtailing Mr. Obama’s momentum and turning the campaign upside down” (Cooper, 1). Further, in a Politico article it stated, “In the days leading up to Mitt Romney’s Denver debate triumph, the team helping him prepare reached a breakthrough with one critical insight: The candidate did best when he felt free to talk like a businessman, pitching voters as though he were pitching investors” (Allen, 1). As you can see, debates have become a very important part of the political campaigning process, and the news media coverage has been showing that with a very tough angle. Many people and news sources know how important the debates are and what strategies that the candidates use and this is shown with the articles that have been out the past couple of weeks.
Works Cited
Allen, Mike. “Inside the Campaign: How Mitt Romney Preps.” Politico. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. http://www.politico.com Cooper, Helene. “Obama’s Prep Session Goal: Don’t Repeat Mistakes of Last Debate.” New York Times. N.p., 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
In this year’s presidential campaign, we have seen the use of many strategies to help the candidate’s success in winning the election. During the pre-debate period of the first presidential debates this year, there was an evident effort in lowering the public’s expectations of the candidate’s performance. “As the media go about their job, they will seek comments from the campaigners. Campaigners will normally tend to downplay the potential outcome of the debate. By minimizing expectations, campaigners feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize for a weak one.” (Trent et al 268) Essentially, the campaigns strategy to lower the public’s expectations comes from utilizing the media’s coverage of the campaigns by releasing statements of expectation to the public. The reason to lower the expectation of a candidate is to make it appear as if the candidate exceeded the general expectation. This year, we saw this strategy being used by both parties. In a report on CNN during the pre-debate period of the first presidential debate this year, they highlight statements made by each campaign, clearly trying to lower expectations. Beth Meyers, an advisor to the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was quoted from a memo she had circulated stating, “Obama is a universally acclaimed public speaker and has substantial debate experience under his belt,” She later explained, “Based on the campaign he's run so far, it's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney” (CNN) This statement clearly has an intention to benefit the overall outcome of the campaign. By putting Obama on the pedestal for his speaking and debate skills, it implies a position of handicap for Mitt Romney during the debate, lowering the public expectations for him, but also attempts to raise the publics expectations of the opposing candidate. Another evident debate strategy in this years campaign is the use of advertisements to underscore debate themes. An example that interested me was the Obama for America ad called “Big Bird”. This ad was release after the first debate. Although this ad did not highlight the moments in which Obama shined during the debate, it exploited a topic the news media and satirical comedy programs focused on. In a report on CBS news it describes, “The ad grew out of a comment by Romney in the presidential debate in which the Republican presidential candidate said that while he likes Big Bird, he wants to cut off the small government subsidy for public broadcasting.” (CBS) Interestingly, since the public was exposed so much to one big bird comment, the Obama for America campaign used it to their advantage and made an advertisement, attacking Romney’s views in a sarcastic way. The third strategy I will discuss is the strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. I will focus on the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, and his performance in implementing this strategy. Romney did a good job in the first debate. That’s not to say whether everything he said had validity, but he was aggressive and confident, which is what really matters when trying to sway the general public. Romney attacked Obama and his policies, associating them with Obama and “big government”. Romney, also firmly kept the his own campaign themes, by assuring his methods would create jobs and promote small business, without cutting the deficit. Both candidates stayed true the their campaign themes, but Romney, tried to exploit Obama and associate his methods with different themes. The strategies in debates are important, but only one of the three presidential debates has occurred. The campaigns use the media to strategically distribute ideas and expectations to the public, but the media also generates and distributes views to the public, making campaigns have to improvise their strategies due the medias coverage of the debates.
The media’s coverage of the debates has been interesting to me. I notice that news coverage as well as satirical shows revolving around the debates, in essence, presented very similar opinions that I had after watching the debate. This allowed me to give some credibility back to news media. I felt as if news media was what determined the public’s views, but it actually just reflects the views of those who watched the debates. The issue lies in those who didn’t watch the debates themselves and base their information of the news. As we all know, Mitt Romney surprised many with his performance and aggression during the debate. The general consensus seemed to determine him the victor of the first debate, possibly changing the minds of voters. What I want to see is the Obama’s performance in the upcoming debates. Obama seemed as if he wasn’t focused or energetic about the debate, but when considering all of the strategy behind every single move in a campaign it makes me wonder, was Obama’s performance in the first debate intentional, possibly a strategy of the Democratic campaign. A lot of information was revealed from Mitt Romney, while not much was revealed from Obama as he struggled to defend, in such a way the general public could understand. Maybe this was intentional to gain information on Romney, and come back Obama’s plan for his second term in which Romney couldn’t argue as well as attacking Romney’s stance. All this strategy we observe in class makes me reluctant to think either party is doing better in the race. The media also does a thorough job of presenting statistics, as well as predicting, or informing their audience what they believe the candidates need to do to keep their positions strong in the campaign. An example from a blog from NBC News describes Obama and his goals for tonight by saying, “Now it's Obama facing a crucial moment -- to fully turn the page on that first debate performance. The president isn't behind, and he still holds more paths to 270 electoral votes. But he needs to stop Romney's momentum and get it back on his side. Our bottom line: Tonight is all about suburban women; it has been Obama’s demographic firewall. Romney has made progress with them on his fav rating and on handling the economy, but not on ballot test. Tonight will tell us whether he continues to make progress.” (NBC News) Clearly the media is following the campaigns relentlessly, and continue to inform their audience of the events and news happening. At the same time the medias coverage can be used by campaign strategists to their advantage.
Works Cited
Montopoli, Brian, and Steve Chaggaris. "Sesame Workshop to Obama: Take Big Bird Ad down." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Todd, Chuck, Mark Murray, Domenico Montenaro, and Brooke Brower. "First Thoughts: Why Tonight's Debate Could Be so Crucial, Part 2." First Read. Nbcnews.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Unit, CNN Political, Peter Hamby, Rachel Streitfeld, and Ashley Killough Contributed to This Report. "Campaigns Play Debate Expectations Game - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
One of the most prominent debate strategies we have seen this year is actually the first one mentioned in the book. Lowering Public Expectations was utilized by both Obama and Romney prior to the first debate. Obama stated that basically he was just “okay” at debating while Romney was a formidable opponent. Since the first debate we have obviously heard no such talk, as it does nothing at this point in the campaign to try to lower expectations in such a way again. Another debate strategy we have seen utilized is devising and rehearsing possible answers. Both candidates trained by using mock debates with members of their respective parties prior to the first debate. And while Obama's was not largely discussed publicly, it was clear that it was happening. Romney on the other hand, had it made very clear who he was debating and his campaign even made comments on the fact that he was training for the first debate. A third debate strategy which I think we saw employed mostly by Romney during the first debate is developing an image, or in his case, redeveloping. Prior to the debate Romney's positions on most topics were very clear. What he stated in the debate was also very clear, however it was a very different picture that he painted himself as. During the debate Romney was able to catch Obama off-guard in front of the entire nation by changing many of his previous stances on issues to appear to a greater audience. As Obama pointed out the next day, still in Colorado; “The man onstage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. And that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year.” Overall, I would say that the debate coverage has been somewhat poor in quality. To me, it seems as if the media is just looking to increase their ratings by turning the debates into a football game, rather than an area for political discourse. The focus is on “who won” the debate, without even a mention of the fact that Romney changed many stances they declared him the clear-cut winner. I found nothing on CBS news discussing this blaring issues, and I think that traditional reporting is again, failing to provide people with what they actually need. While it was very clear that Romney took control in the first debate, that does not mean that he was necessarily telling the truth, and this should have been pointed out. We saw the same lack of fact-checking on major media outlets after the Vice Presidential debate, with a focus on “who won” instead of what was presented. Paul Ryan was able to slip away again with saying that 6 independent studies found that their tax plan raises revenue. According to politifact.com this is not true, “Ryan said that six studies verify that the numbers in the Romney tax plan add up. Hearing that, you might think that each is independent research. But not all studies are created equal and these come from people or groups with ties to Romney.” I truly think that the mainstream media should be analyzing what is said versus what has previously been said. If somebody contradicts what they said last night, or last week, they need to be called out for it. After all, as President Obama said “if you wanna be President you owe the American people the truth,” but then again, take that as a grain of salt because he partakes in the distortions too.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. eBook.
The presidential debates play an important role in our presidential elections. Because of the importance of these debates, strategies have been created for the candidate in hopes of using the debates to their full advantage in gaining more votes come Election Day. Throughout history presidential debates have been very effective in either hurting a candidate’s popularity, along with boosting a candidates popularity. There are pre-debate strategies, debate strategies, and post-debate strategies. Pre-debate strategies include: lowering public expectations, determining a target audience and devising and rehearsing possible answers for the upcoming debate. During the actual debate, debate strategies are relating issues to an overall theme, and developing an image. Finally, post-debate strategies consist of offering a large, well-coordinated surrogate effort, using ads to underscore debate themes, and using audience members to project a positive view. All of these tactics are done to gain approval from potential voters and the media. The media does pay special attention to these debate strategies and cover stories about them and the candidate. Before the first presidential debate that occurred in the beginning of October, reports were saying that Obama was lowering public expectations before the debate occurred. Although, for the presidential debate that was held tonight it was reported by CNN that both candidates did the exact opposite of one of the pre-debate tactics. Instead of lowering expectations for tonight’s debate both candidates raised them. Governor Mitt Romney’s surrogate, Chris Christie, made statements saying that Romney was going to do very well and change the pace of the election thus far. He was quoted stating, “Romney can walk and
chew gum at the same time… I’m not worried”. Governor Chris Christie’s comments certainly raised expectations for Romney. This may not have been the best idea because on does not want to set the voters expectations to high because even if a candidate does well in the debate it will be overseen by what the viewers were expecting him to do. During the debate one could clearly see both candidates stating their point of view and then relating it back to their overall campaign message. Obama’s message is that our country has been improving and he wants four more years to continue his work as president, while Romney’s overall message is that he knows he has what it takes to get the economy going because of his business in the private sector background. Romney also goes back often to discussing his five point plan. In tonight’s debate this was something that was seen a lot. The candidates also were continuing to develop their images. Obama was trying to reignite his voters from 2008 this was shown when one gentleman stated he had voted for Obama in 2008 and wanted to know why he should vote for Obama again. Romney was trying to be relatable towards the camera and individuals in the arena. This was shown with the young man who asked the first question about attending college, the debt that needs to be paid off, and his opportunity for employment when he graduates. Romney asked him to repeat his name and asked him personal questions such as when he would graduate. After the debate Obama used the post-debate strategy of using ads to underscore debate themes. After the first presidential debate was over President Obama re-election campaign aired an ad the very next day disagreeing with Romney’s comments about taxes in Denver. In one part the ad stated, “’If we can’t trust him here…’ the narrator says over an image of the debate stage. ‘How could we ever trust him here?’ the narrator continues, with a photo of the Oval Office displayed” (Killough). This ad will be shown in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia. It will be interesting to see what other debate strategies are used as the presidential election goes on.
Works Cited
Davidsen, Dana. "Raising the Bar: Christie Says Romney Will Do 'extraordinarily Well' Wednesday." Raising the Bar: Christie Says Romney Will Do âextraordinarily Wellâ Wednesday â CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 30 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Killough, Ashley. "That Was Fast: Romney Debate Remarks in New Obama Ad." â CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Seventh ed. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
In the presidential debates of 2012, we as viewers are seeing many of the debate strategies discussed by Trent et al in Political Communications being used. In my opinion, the most heavily used strategy is developing an image. Yes, I believe that the image of these two candidates encompasses them and can be displayed through things other than the debates, such as social media. However, during the debates is when that true image is exposed, right there on the TV screen, as real as ever. During these debates, you get exactly what is happening, there’s no time to fix up an image, appearance, or anything. It’s a bit more natural. While doing the chapter 8 reading, one of Trent’s ideas regarding the 2008 presidential debates really stuck out to me and made me think about the current 2012 debates. Trent wrote, “The physical contrast between the two men contributed to their respective images. Obama simply looked younger, more vigorous, and more energetic than the older, gray-haired McCain.” (Trent et al 275) My first thought after reading this was that the words used to describe 2008 Obama could certainly be used to describe Mitt Romney in the first presidential debate of this year, while the latter could now describe Obama today. During the first debate, Romney came out with a bold appearance, looking fresher, younger, and frankly more interested than the incumbent. President Obama looked tired, worn out, and definitely a lot older than four years ago. Immediately when they appeared on the screen, viewers noticed Obama’s apathy and quickly began to make it a major focus of the debates, disregarding the issues at hand. The physical image made a major impact and somewhat gave Romney an advantage before the debate really started.
In this campaign, Governor Romney is so easily able to identify as the “challenger” we’ve discussed in previous chapters. Going up against someone who has been our president for four years gives him a clear advantage because he has many more failures to hold Obama accountable for. That was Romney’s image automatically going into the first debate. For Obama, I was curious to see what role he decided to play in that first debate. Instead, the image created for me was one I did not find memorable.
A post-debate strategy discussed in the chapter eight readings talks about the idea that, “…the well-prepared campaign will be ready to try to influence audience perceptions of the debate as soon as it concludes.” (279) Well, I believe the times have changed and instead we find ourselves submerged in social media and the Internet, eagerly choosing a winner after every sentence and going back and forth instead of waiting until the end when all the information can be processed at once to form a clear opinion. Yes, the conversation continues for days after the debate, however the conversation between the audience begins when the conversation between the candidates begins, which could potentially make a huge difference. Trent also writes, “Frequently, audience members do not reach final judgment until they have discussed the debate with others and have observed the media reaction.” (280) Is that always a good thing, though? I don’t believe so, because it allows for too much influence rather than a person formulating their own true opinion based on what they just saw and simply nothing else.
Another debate strategy prevalent due to news media coverage of the 2012 debates is the idea of lowering public expectation. After the first debate, I believe the news media jumped right on Obama and his apathy and found Romney to be the clear winner. However, I sort of believe that worked in Obama’s favor because it truly began to lower people’s expectations of him, especially for the second debate. Going into the second debate, I’m sure people were curious to see what Obama had up his sleeve. Reflecting on his first performance, maybe some people thought his second would be all too similar. However, he came out much stronger and really redeemed herself. According to a Politico article released just an hour after the debate concluded, Obama was “Gutsy. Presidential. Everything that Obama wasn’t in his first debate, in fact. Was this really the same person? Just 12 days later?” (Politico: “Presidential debate: Obama snaps back hard) President Obama had the power to set everyone’s expectations lows and then ultimately rise to the occasion when given his second chance.
Works Cited Epstein, Reid J. “Obama says debate prep ‘going great.’” Politico. 14 October 2012. Web. 17 October 2012.
Simon, Roger. “Presidential debate: Obama snaps back hard.” Politico. 16 October 2012. Web. 17 October 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
There was a lot of media hype leading up to the first debate after Obamas less than stellar performance…Years ago the debates and political conventions were a lot more important than they are today. In todays time the public knows who the nominees are going to be long before the conventions. This is mostly due to the non-stop media coverage on the road with every news network having a “road to the election” segment.
After the first debate the political coverage changed. Because of the non-stop coverage the outlets sometimes run out of important news worthy stories. You start to see a lot more personal filler stories such as the Pizza Parlor owner who gave President Obama a bear hug. This video went viral almost immediately. Between the first and second debates the coverage starts to focus on the candidates performances during the debate and they start to break down the Do’s and Don’ts for the second debate.
Years ago the debates used to be set up differently where the candidates could actually debate each other on certain issues and not be limited to such a short period of times due to sponsorship (commercials) and everything that goes along with having anything on primetime TV. What a lot of networks do is use certain audience members to project a positive view on the debates. (Trent et al 282) The networks could do this by pre-interviewing the subjects before they go on air. Networks such as Fox News that are known for being conservative would normally go the route of making Obama look bad and Romney look good.
Every move that a candidate makes is very strategic, including walking into a pizza parlor that television cameras are already inside of, to the owner getting permission from the secret service to hug the President. In the Presidents re-election campaign you would think it would be easier because he has already done this once before, he knows how the debates and the road to the election is run. With that being said he has also had four years of practice answering questions about everything under the sun. According to Trent one of the candidates main goals are to create an image that is suitable for them and to keep that image throughout the entire race. (Trent et al 274)
When it comes to debates specifically Senator John McCain who ran against Obama in 2008 said in a recent interview that the candidates have been heavily prepared on the possible questions and they know how to answer around seven out of every ten questions asked. Now that we are only a few weeks away from election day and the race is heating up with the second debate being held tonight coverage will likely change over the next few days to discussing the candidates performance in this last debate and who looked better over both of the debates together. Since the candidates don’t stop after the debates they will make some news over the next few days to get all of the political coverage off the debates and onto something else. In some cases this might be a deliberate move by the loosing candidate so people can forget their poor performance.
There are many ploys used by candidates to try and make their opponent look bad in any way possible. A frequent way of doing this is by creating anti-commercials. In the last election between Obama and McCain, one of the candidates challenged the other to additional debated and to do a few “town hall” debates where they would field questions from audience members instead of a moderator. For a politician who is a good speaker this would be a good strategy to try and catch their opponent off guard. It is very hard for a politician to say no to a debate because it would affect their image that they have been building all race long. On the other hand if he does accept he would have a tough road preparing for a debate that he wouldn’t have had to do if not challenged. (Trent et al 265)
Works Cited
1. Norris, Pippa. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Post- Industrial Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print. . 2. O'Brien, Michael. "Sharp Exchanges Between Obama, Romney At Second Debate" http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/16/14490356-sharp-exchanges-between-obama-romney-at-second-debate?lite. 10 Oct 2012. 10 Oct. 2012 . 3. . Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
The debates we have seen so far during this campaign have been a grandiose display of almost all of the debate strategies discussed in the reading. Just the first strategy alone, lowering public expectations, “Hence, many candidates seek to lower public expectations of their performance. If prior expectations are los, then it may not take a strong effort on that part of the candidates to appear to have done well”(Trent et al 267). We have been asked over and over again by both candidates, to lower our expectations. Maybe it has not been as obvious as ads that said, ‘Lower your expectations I am stiff as a board. I am Mitt Romney and I approve this message.’ or ‘Did you see the first one? I promise I am not a great public speaker. I am Barak Obama and I approve this message.’ but the message was put out there. Lacking a personality and constantly being compared to a robot is something Mitt Romney and his whole campaign has been struggling with, someone with those qualities would never be good at a face to face debate, they would be stiff. Since the first debate the talk around Obama has been how disappointed everyone was in him and how he just was not up to par, really creating this image that maybe he just is not that good at public speaking anymore. While this is going on, the media is playing up everything the candidates are trying to display. In an article released by the Boston Globe, the opening sentence gets straight to the point. “Aides to President Obama said on Sunday that Obama was disappointed by his own performance at last week’s debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Denver”(Borchers 1). If the president is disappointed in himself, why shouldn’t you be disappointed in him as well? Debate preparations such as devising and rehearsing possible answers have also been going on in this campaign. Both candidates have been setting time aside to prepare themselves, and it shows in the debates. It is clear when delivering an answer; the subject has been covered over and over again before hand. “Romney, who has been setting aside time for debate practice since June, was joined by his senior strategy team including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who has been playing Obama” (Associated Press 2). The media has been just as diligent as the candidates, especially in their coverage of the candidates’ preparations. Any moment a candidate stops shaking hands and giving speeches in order to prepare for a debate there is media coverage of that action. “Obama-Biden signs dot the back roads of Vermont, a state that has voted for a Democratic president since 1988. One of the shops in the nearby town of Woodstock is called “The Collective.” And yet, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney chose a friend’s home in rural Vermont to hunker down to prepare for a trio of high stakes debates” (Hunt 1). How much, when, where and with whom a candidate prepares for a debate is not only covered by the media but also used to create a story line of what hard workers the candidates are.
During the debates both Romney and Obama used the strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. “While those issues vary from campaign to campaign, most successful political debaters have been able to integrate specific issues into an overall frame work” (Trent et al 273). As different as Obama and Romney are from their policies to their upbringing, there was a certain aspect to their overall framework that was very similar, and could be summed up with ‘this is why you cannot trust him’. Romney repeatedly brought up how poorly Obama has been doing serving in office, his answers to almost every question had at least one point of how bad Obama has been for this country, and some answers ONLY contained statements about Obama’s term rather than his plan to make things better. Obama consistently brought up through every question that Romney would not be working for the middle class, even when he was defending his term or talking about the future, he would always make the point that Romney was working for the wealthy. Every topic breached and every answer delivered from either candidate had a hint of 'this is why you can't trust him'. The media coverage of the town hall debate at least on ABC played up this theme for both candidates. While they were speaking facts about the subject would come up that would sometimes disprove what they were saying, showing just how much you can not trust him (him being whoever was speaking at the time). Like the rest of the campaign the debates and the preparations for them come off in a certain way. No matter what the candidates do there will be media coverage, but the media gets to decide what the story line is for the candidates, no matter what they do.
Borchers, Callum. "Obama Advisers Say President Disappointed Himself with Debate Performance." BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe, 7 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. . Hunt, Kasie. "Mitt Romney Sequestered in Vermont for Debate Prep." BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe, 6 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. . Press, Associated. "Obama, Romney Skip Campaigning Sunday to Focus on Preparing for next Debate, Tuesday in NY." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. . Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
The 2012 debates have already shown a vast array of traditional strategies, as well as integration of some new tools by the press. Although the strategies haven’t changed over the years, interactivity with the people, social media and fact checking have changed the post-debate realm rapidly.
One pre-debate strategy we saw clearly before the first debate on October 3rd was lowering public explanations. This strategy, according to Chapter 8 of the Political Campaign Communication, is essential leading up to debate time to make it seem as if the candidate did excellent when they did not. Campaigners “feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize a weak one” (Trent et all, 268). Because of this, and the “landslide” outcome of the first debate in the 2012 campaigns, it has been even tougher for the Romney campaign come round two. According to a Politico article a day prior to the second debate, the Romney campaign began to tout that a Romney win would be impossible, due to the media craving making Obama seem like a “comeback kid.” The author goes on to say that “Romney’s backers…will tell you that their guy likely can’t hold a candle to the congenial Obama in a town-hall format,” when in reality, Romney has longstanding tradition of doing well in town-hall style, and even held “Ask Mitt Anything” forums in 2008 across the country” (Romano).
Another debate strategy seen by this year’s campaigns has been relating issues to an overall theme. Romney has been consistently stating that the policies of the past four years have failed while Obama has been imploring the American people to give him another four years to initiate all of his policies. According to the reading, skilled debaters will use their themes heavily in the opening and closing statements, as well as “reinforce it in answers to as many specific questions as possible” (Trent et all, 273). Often, the candidates in the past two debates would avoid answering questions entirely, and instead stray away towards seemingly calculated responses, such as referring to Romney’s policies as the same old policies from the Bush era, or calling Obama’s policies a failure. These enforcers, especially when repeated, give the viewers a take-away from the debate, so if they don’t remember much else, they’ll remember a consistent theme.
Finally, an essential post-debate strategy seen in the past few debates has been offering a large, well-coordinated surrogate effort. The moment after each debate concluded, the press rushed to surrogates of both sides, flooding them with questions about their candidate. Without hesitation or surprise, each surrogate instantly claimed victory. On top of claiming victory, surrogate regurgitated many of the talking points of their candidates. I found these strategies most interesting after the first debate. Although pundits and press alike almost immediately marked it a Romney victory, Obama’s surrogates not only didn’t admit defeat, but claimed a victory of their own. Although this isn’t surprising, it is interesting to note the perhaps acquiescent demeanor that surrogates must undergo by not conceding in any way.
So far, I would characterize the coverage of the debates as more social media and interactivity dependent than ever before. FoxNews had a constant twitter update on their feed, letting viewers know of the amount of tweets regarding the debate per minute. CNN had an appeal graph of sorts, which honed in on when a non-bias group would become amused or excited by a particular candidate’s performance. Unlike before, these factors have become a topic of discussion with the press and pundits, and are stressed as important because of this.
Romano, Lois. "Second presidential debate: Romney camp says media want Obama comeback." Politico. N.p., 15 2012. Web. 17 Oct 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
In terms of their influence on presidential campaigns, I find debates to be rather intriguing. For fierce political junkies, debates are the World Series. Two politicians square off and battle with political rhetoric, one hoping to come out the victor. For these people the debates are more so entertainment than a crucial deciding factor in selecting a candidate. For others, though, the debates are where much of the deciding about the candidates takes place. For people who do not closely follow politics, but still feel like they should vote, the debates are one stop shops. They able these people to get an up close look at each candidate and hear him speak about various issues in a short time that does not require too much commitment or participation from the individuals. For this reason candidates spend much time in preparation for the debate. It is also for this reason that the debates are so heavily covered by the media.
Since debates play an important role in each candidate’s campaign, it is no surprise that they invoke certain strategies regarding the debates, just as strategies are used in other aspects of the campaign. For the debate that happened just last night on October 16, it appeared that Obama had employed the pre-debate strategy of “lowering public expectations”. As Trent et al explains, “If public expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on part of the candidate to appear to have done well” (Trent et al, 267). In the previous debate the media claimed that Obama had a weak performance, did not speak to the best of his ability and overall let Romney dominate the debate. Previous to the first debate, the media had high expectations of Obama due to past success at debates. Previous to last’s night debate, the media just seemed to hope that he would perform better than he did at the first one. The immediate post-debate coverage had Obama appearing strong with a good performance. Following the debate The Washington Post blog “The Fix” placed Obama at the top of their winners list saying, “It was a near-certainty that the incumbent would improve on his mystifying bad first debate performance. And, he did. But he also did more than that. After coming out a little too hot — Obama seemed to be on the wrong side of the angry/passionate divide in the first 15 minutes — he moderated his tone to the sober/serious yet forceful persona that he needed in this debate…Obama’s performance wasn’t flawless and he didn’t score a clean win as Romney did in the first debate. But, he was the better performer this time around” (Cillizza). Comparing Obama’s performance to his at the first debate, Obama looked drastically better. While perhaps his performance was not as flaw free as it could be, that seemed to be overlooked by the media. I wonder if they would be more critical of Obama if he had not had such a lackluster performance the first time around? I’m not sure if the Obama team purposely employed this strategy of looking expectations, but nonetheless it worked for them.
Both Romney and Obama used the strategy of “relating issues to an overall theme” and worked to “integrate specific issues into an overall framework” (Trent et al, 273). Both sought to use the themes that their campaigns have been respectively focused on. For Romney that meant a repeated acknowledgement that he has experience in making jobs and he is ready to make jobs again for the United States. For Obama that meant reflecting on what he has accomplished for the American as President and how much more he would be able to accomplish if he was given four more years. This strategy seemed to be aimed at those mostly unfamiliar with the candidates, who are not aware of each campaign’s main talking points.
Regarding the first debate, Obama’s team used the pos-debate strategy of “using audience members to project a positive view” when he used ads “to reiterate and stress a key idea made in the debate” (Trent et al, 282). After Romney famously said that while he liked PBS and he loved Big Bird he would have to stop the subsidiary to PBS. Obama’s team quickly produced a thirty second ad in which it says that Romney does not worry about crooks on Wall Street, but the real crook of Big Bird. The Big Bird remark made Romney looked more unfavorable and therefore made Obama look more favorable. Obama took that idea from the debate and used it in the ad to convey a negative image of Romney, which would hopefully then craft a positive image of himself.
Despite the use of these various strategies, the media’s coverage seems to be primarily focused on who won the debate. Immediately after the debate last night my Twitter feed was jammed with the question, “So who won?” As previously mentioned “The Fix” even sought to rank the winners and losers like you would rate fantasy football players. Theirs was not the story where the comparison between sports coverage and political coverage could be seen. NBC News’ story discussing the candidates bickering over the time they were given during last night’s debate began with “The second presidential debate Tuesday night was a football fan's dream, turning into a battle over time of possession as President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney battled almost as fiercely over the clock as they did over what they would do in the White House” (Johnson). It is the second week in a row that I have seen NBC compare a political event to a sporting event. Last week it compared Obama’s debate performance to a baseball team losing with its ace on the mound. Not only does debate coverage invoke comparisons to sporting events, but it is also covered in similar way. When you watch coverage of football game, the coverage is composed of what critical plays were made, errors that were made and most importantly and ultimately who won. The political coverage of debates focuses on the big moments for the candidates, the gaffes or incorrect statements made and then again who won. The competiveness of our culture that is so often found in sports seems to have seeped into election coverage as well. This competiveness of culture could attribute to why the question of “Who won?” appears to be the media’s favorite question after debates and why candidates employ different strategies to essentially win the debates and win over the American people.
Works Cited Cillizza, Chris. "Winners and Losers from Second Presidential Debate." The Fix on The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Johnson, M. Alex. "Time, Gentlemen, Please! Obama, Romney Bicker over the Debate Clock." NBC Politics. NBCNews.com, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., Robert V. Friedenberg, and Robert E. Denton, Jr. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. 7th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print
The Presidential debates have become a staple part of the Presidential campaigns. Yet, this has not always been the case. According to the reading, the first significant debate that occurred in the history of the United States was the debate between Lincoln and Douglass for the senate seat in 1858. After this debate, the next really significant presidential debate was between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. This was the very first televised debate, and while it was a very popular debate that is still spoken about today this also was not the debate that made presidential debating an essential part of the campaign season. In fact it as not until sixteen years later in 1976 in the debate between Carter and Ford that debates became a staple item on the agenda for the presidential candidates. It is obvious that both the Romney and Obama campaigns have focused on their debate tactics to prepare for their three debates. In the Trent reading it explains that debate strategies are broken up into three separate categories. Trent elaborates by saying,” First are those strategies that take place prior to the debate itself. Second are those the candidate attempts to implement during the debate. Finally are those following the debate.” (Trent et. All 267). There are some strategies that both of the candidates seem to be using in order to make themselves come out as the winner of these debates. The first strategy that both candidates have used is what the book refers to as “lowering public expectations”. The text explains, “Many candidates seek to lower public expectations of their performance. If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well it may be perceived as a major victory”. ( Trent et. All 267).
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both used, and perhaps overused this approach. Each candidates campaign team had been telling the media that their opponent really had the advantage when it came to debating, and they believed that their opponent would probably win the debate. Romney’s campaign stated this regardless of the fact that he had plenty of practices with debates from the Republican primaries. Obama’s campaign also gave the upper hand to his opponent, completely disregarding his great success in the 2008 debates in the Democratic primaries and in the presidential election of 2008. He is also widely known as one of the best speakers of our time period. Since, both of these candidates clearly were prepared and ready for these debates they were simply using the “lower the expectations” strategy. Another pre-debate method that both candidates have used is what the reading described as “devising and rehearsing possible answers”. There are a few different steps involved in the strategy, but the second one is the one that both of these candidates have attracted the media attention for participating in. This step is described as, “ The candidate should practice the answers in a situation as similar to the real one as possible. For nationally televised presidential debates, this has meant simulating, the television studio or auditorium to be used, and often utilizing a stand in opponent (Trent et. All 271). Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both spent a lot of time practice debating in these types of formats, and there have been reports that the same has been done for the second debate. In an article from The Guardian, it said that,” As with the preparations for the first debate in Denver, senator John Kerry is playing the role of Romney and Obama’s head of communications, Anita Dunn is playing Crowley”(MacAskell). In terms of Romney’s debate preparations the article reported,” Romney practiced in Ohio on Saturday night and since Sunday at a house outside Boston, Massachusetts, with senator Rob Portman as Obama and, in a piece of gender-switching one of the Romney’s aides Peter Flaherty as Crowley (MacAskell). It is obvious, but both of them want to get as much practice that will be similar to the actual debate as possible.
The candidates both took ample opportunity in the first debate to follow the debating ploy of “relating issues to an overall theme”. The book explains that a successful debater has to be able to relay all of their answers back to one common theme. Trent explains,” As the debate progresses, candidates must constantly respond to specific questions on the issues of the day. While these issues may vary from campaign to campaign most successful political debates have been able to integrate the specific issues into an overall framework” (Trent et.all 273). Barack Obama’s over all messages has to always focus on the good that he has accomplished in the past four years, and how he will keep America moving forward. In an article from CBS news, it explains how Obama will need to really send this message home to voters after his poor performance in the last debate. In the article it went on to say, ‘ the debate will also be the last chance for the Obama campaign to talk about the economy. The campaign has changed their strategy slightly-now, they are betting people feel better about the unemployment rate’s recent dip below 8 percent. Campaign strategists are making a bet that voters feel good enough about how things are going that they can say ‘don’t blow it by changing presidents’”(John Dickerson). It will be interesting to see how well Barack Obama does tonight to make a strong correlation back to his theme of keep moving forward.
Works Cited Dickerson, John. "Debate Is Obama's Last Chance to Talk about the Economy." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. . MacAskill, Ewen. "Obama and Romney Debate Again: Strategies for the Town-hall Style Forma." The Guardian. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. . Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Debate strategies are very important in an election in order for a candidate to be successful. There are strategies that are used before a debate, during a debate, and after a debate to help the candidates connect with the voters. In the pre-debate period, “The interaction between the candidate and campaign staff on the one hand, and the media on the other, can be crucial” (Trent et al 268). The campaigners strive to lower the public’s expectations, determine the target audience, and candidate’s discuss and rehearse possible answers (Trent et al 267 – 272).
Some campaign strategies that have been seen leading up to the 2012 election are relating issues to an overall theme, developing an image, and using audience member to project a positive view (Trent et al 273 – 282). By creating a theme for the campaign, it makes it easier for an audience to understand and reflect on the candidate’s message when it is being used repeatedly. Trent et al says, “Skilled political debaters will first present their overall theme in the introductory statement…Then they will reinforce it in the answers…Finally, they will return to it in their concluding statement” (273). This outline delivers the message to the listeners and can help give the candidate a direction with his answers.
An example of this has been seen with President Obama during the debates. During the 2008 election, everyone was aware that Obama’s main theme was “Change.” This year, Obama’s new theme is “Forward.” His campaign highlights the changes he has made and how he can continue to improve our country by moving forward. On BarackObama.com, it lays out the foundation for his new plan. It discusses auto recovery, jobs, veterans, health care, education, and energy, and the improvements he has made so far and the ways he can build on it if selected for another four years.
During the debates, both candidates have developed an image. “The principal strategies that can be utilized in political debating include the development of a leadership style, personification, and identification (Trent et al 274). The second presidential debate really defined both of their characters. According to the Wall Street Journal online about last night’s debate, “President Barack Obama roared. And Mitt Romney roared back.” Many people doubted Obama after the first debate, saying it was not his strongest performance. Being given a second opportunity, “…he had proclaimed Mr. Romney a protector of the rich; subtly reminded the audience that the Republican’s former private-equity firm sometimes close down plants and made money” (Seib). Obama stressed his views and stated, “ I believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known… I believe that everyone should have a fair shot and everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules” (“Obama Draws Case for Second Term”). By saying this, Obama wants to become relatable with the with all people.
One strategy that is used after a debate is to use audience members to project a positive view. According to Trent et al, “The use of prominent spokespersons to present a positive view of the debate and the positing of key moment on the Internet are the most common-post debate strategies” (282). According to a video posted by the Wall Street Journal called, “Assessing the Presidential Debate,” Linda Fowler, Dartmouth College Professor of Government, comments on the debate. She says, “I thought we saw two well prepared, articulate people determined not to give any ground to either one” (Fowler). By highlighting the key aspects debate, she is able to portray a positive view for both of the candidates.
Works Cited “Assessing Tuesday’s Presidential Debate”. Wall Street Journal Online. 17 Oct 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012
"Forward." Obama for America. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
“Obama Draws Case for Second Term” Wall Street Journal Online. 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
Seib, Gerald. "A Lively Debate Again Changes Campaign's Arc." The Wall Street Journal, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. New York: Praeger, 1991. Print.
When a heated presidential campaign is proceeding, the political debates become a key part for candidates in so many ways like reaching out to voters, evoking their image, and showing their ability to handle tough situations. So far in the political debates that we’ve seen, both Barak Obama and Mitt Romney have used several debate strategies in hopes of coming out on top. According to Trent in Political Campaign Communication, there are three stages in debate strategies: pre-debate strategies, efforts during the debate, and post-debate strategies. Trent continues in saying “Each is important. A political debate can be won or lost before it takes place, as it takes place, or after it’s held,” (Trent, 267). Essentially, strategies can make or break the race. If a candidate was not implementing any type of plan during any point of the debate, it could hurt them immensely because they may appear unprepared or to not be taking it seriously. One debate strategy that emerges prior to the debate is determining a target audience. Trent notes, “The candidates must determine who their target audiences are for the debate,” (Trent, 271). Though both presidential candidates seek to appeal to many different demographics, one that has been apparently leading up to the debates is both attempting to aim at the middle class. Each man wishes to appear to be the candidate that will get the results the middle class wants out of them. This has become apparent through their speeches prior to the debates and their advertisements because they continuously highlight the middle class and how they will be the candidate to lift them up. Especially the days just prior to the event, I saw an increase of campaigning towards “the common man”. Both Obama and Romney wish to show the middle class that they empathize with them and understand the struggles they face. Fox News released an article just weeks before the first debate of Obama implementing the strategy of determining his target audience to be the middle class citizen. According to Fox, Obama was quoted saying “This country doesn't succeed when only a few do well," the president said during an early-evening rally in Milwaukee. "America succeeds when the middle class does well,” (FoxNews.com). This shows how Obama was intending on zeroing in on the middle class as a key part in winning the upcoming debates.
CONTINUED: Another strategy that each candidate has used has been developing an image. Trent points out that “The principle image strategies that can be utilized in political debating include the development of leadership style, personification, and identification,” (Trent, 275). While watching the debates it became clear that Romney wished to create an image of the “All American Man” who will take a tough approach in leading the country by not giving in or apologizing for leadership decisions. It has also been important for him to dispel the image of him being a rich aristocrat that would not be able to understand the issues of the poor. This also links to Obama’s strategies relating to image. While he paints himself as the man who will bring change to America, he also wishes to show himself as someone who understands poverty and all levels income because he did not grow up in a rich family. This idea of image can be seen in the debates that have already occurred. Also an important strategy to mention is rehearsing possible strategies. This strategy was implemented by Obama in the second debate. He was able to fluster Romney early in the debate with the controversy over the auto bailout. It is safe to assume he was prepared with this as a strategy to gain ground in the debate. He had a strong force and argument that was successful in faltering his candidate. Obama chose to take the offensive prior to the debate and went through on this plan. Newsweek mentions in an article “The president was able to throw Governor Romney off his “game” early in the debate, putting Romney on defense over the auto bailout,” (DailyBeast.com). Obama was able to use this predebate strategy and implement it during the debate to create a stronger argument and attack thus showing him as a strong candidate.
Works Cited
"Obama Appeals to Middle Class, Jabs at Romney in Weekend of Furious Campaigning." Fox News. FOX News Network, 22 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
O'Donnell, Brett. "Brett O'Donnell: Obama Won on Points, But Romney's Got the Edge." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Debates this year are just as important as ever when it comes to deciding the next president of the United States. How a candidate acts and is portrayed is just as important as the answers that they give to the American people during a debate. It can affect how that candidate is viewed. After the first presidential debate, a new CNN poll of polls shows Romney leading Obama by one point, 48% to 47%, just a month ago it was the President who was leading. When it comes to debates, there are many strategies that are utilized in order to have a successful debate. Three strategies that are used during this debate season are; lowering public expectations, relating issues to an overall theme, and developing an image. The first strategy that has been used is lowering public expectations. Trent explains the importance of the lowering of expectations, she says, “If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover, if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well, it may be perceived as a major victory (Trent et. Al. 267). Both the Obama and Romney camps have stated that they feel that their opponent will do better in the debates than they will, thus lowering expectations for candidate. According to the CNN Political Unit, voters feel that President Obama will have an advantage in the three presidential debates. However, his campaign surrogates disagree. “They cite Romney's primary experience of many debates allowing the opposing candidate the time to hone his debating ability.” This lowers the expectation for Obama. “Romney's supporters, of course, see a different picture – in fact, that of David v. Goliath. Obama is considered a very strong debater, they remind, and they downplay Romney's experience.” This lowers the expectations Romney. In 2012, a debate strategy employed by both presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates was “relating issues to an overall theme” (Trent et al. 273). Soledad O’ Brian of CNN spoke to Jen Psaki, the Obama Campaign's traveling press secretary, about addresses President Obama's preparedness for the debate that happened last night, after he received criticism for his first debate performance. "He has watched the last debate and…he is his own harshest critic. He is coming into this debate energized. People with expect to see a passionate President Obama delivering the case for why he has a better plan for the middle class. Ultimately this is about who is going to be better for the American people for the next four years. So who has a better education plan, who has a better plan for tax cuts, who has a better plan for health care. He feels good about that. He is not going to hide from his positions unlike his opponent..." This statement relates to Obama’s overall theme of moving forward and creating better situations for the American middle class. Romney’s theme is that the last four years have showed no progress or change and that the American people need a leader who can turn things around and can create jobs as well as stimulate the economy.
The final strategy is developing an image. According to Trent, there are two main concerns during a debate. One is the issues and the other is image. (Trent et al. 274) Both Romney and Obama have tried to present themselves as active leaders. Obama wants four more years to make the changes that he is promising and Romney wants an opportunity to be a leader and change what has been done or not been done the past four years. This election, as opposed to the last isn’t solely on looks because Obama no longer looks younger he as aged. However, Obama tends to be more comfortable when speaking, whereas Romney looks stiff and cold to some people The media plays an important role in how effective each candidate is at executing all three of these strategies. The media is there to critique each candidate in how well they executed their strategies and to determine a winner and a loser of each debate. Indeed, “research holds that ‘we judge as important what the media judge as important. Media priorities become our own’” (Trent et al. 287
Works Cited Davidsen, Dana and Steinhauser, Paul. CNN Political Unit September 24, 2012 http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/24/pre-game-debate-prep-and-punditry/?iref=allsearch O’Brien, Soledad. Starting Point. CNN. October 16, 2012. http://startingpoint.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/16/obama-campaigns-psaki-president-will-be-energized-at-debate/?iref=allsearch Trent, Judith S., Robert V. Friedenberg, and Robert E. Denton. Political Campaign Communication : Principles and Practices.Rowman and Littlefield.
This year, we have seen the use of political debate strategies and how they play an important role in the election. The author in Political Campaign Communication explains that there are three stages of debate strategies; those leading up to the debate, those during the debate and, finally, those following the debate. “A political debate can be won or lost before it takes place, as it takes place, or after it is held” (Trent 267). In the 2012 debates, we have seen pre, during and post strategies present including lowering public expectations, developing an image and using ads to underscore debate themes.
Leading up to the debates, we have watched both parties try to lower public expectations of their performance. Candidates figure if the public expectation is lowered, “then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well” (Trent 267). By minimizing or downplaying there skills leading up to it, candidates feel as though they are putting themselves in a greater position to take on a strong performance and rationalize for a weaker one. When asked by reporters about whats the worst thing that could happen, Obama’s campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki jokingly said, “Well, he could fall off the stage” (USA Today 1). As Romney’s senior adviser, Beth Myers was asked about Mitt’s readiness for the upcoming debate, she explained “This will be the eight one-on-one presidential debate of Obama’s career, and for Mitt it will be his first” (USA Today 1). In both instances, the representatives downplayed their candidates upcoming performance.
Another key debate strategy displayed this year is developing a image. For Obama, he has already taken on an image being the previous president. Many look at him as a strong speaker with a great personality, however they need him to be a more aggressive leader. In the first debate, it was clear that Obama was more passive and gentle while Romney came out strong. Obama’s senior advisor, David Axelrod, explained that the president will be taking notes on what was said and next time he will make sure he is more responsive. The first debate was not the way Obama wanted to develop his image (Knowlton 1). On the other hand, Romney’s performance allowed him to be viewed as a stronger leader wiping out Obama’s lead in the polls. Two-thirds of voters said Mr. Romney did a better job than Obama believing he has “improved his standing on most issues and personal characteristics” (Connelly 1). As the candidates now stand virtually even, they must prove who is better described as a strong leader and which is more willing to work with leaders from the opposite party.
The final debate strategy shown this year explains how the candidates use advertising to underscore debate themes. After Obama’s disappointing debate, his campaign developed a new ad titled, “Trust”, which “takes Mr. Romney to task for running away from his tax cut plans that a nonpartisan think tank has estimated would amount to $5 trillion dollars over 10 years” (Crabtree 1). The ad is aimed to downplay Romney’s strong debate performance which will not hold up over time, according to David Axelrod, Obama’s senior strategist (Crabtree 1). Romney’s campaign felt they did not need to answer back with an ad knowing he has clearly taken the first debate.
Works Cited Connelly, Marjorie. "Debate Bounce: Romney Gains in Pew Poll." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Crabtree, Susan. "New Obama Ad: Romney Debate Claims Can't Be Trusted." The Washington Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Knowlton, Brian. "Axelrod Says Obama Will Review Tape of Debate." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
"Obama, Romney Aides Lower Expectations for First Debate." USA Today. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Stephanie Griffin
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to debates, regardless of political position, there are many strategies behind a successful debate. You must learn to strategize before the debate, during the debate, and after the debate, as Trent et al describe in their book, Political Communication. We have noticed both President Obama and Governor Romney utilizing some of the strategies discussed for their campaign and debate preparations. Such strategies include relating issues to an overall theme (Trent et al 273), develop and maintain an image (Trent et al 274), and the usage of audience members to project a positive view on how the debate went (Trent et al 282). These strategies have become imperative during today’s politics and candidates have almost become forced to debate. As Trent et al write, “Today, presidential candidates risk the possibility of severe backlash if they decline to debate” (Trent et al 265). The idea of backing out of a debate relates back to the candidate’s image, and how candidates are immediately judged as soon as they decide to even run, as we noticed Romney amongst other potential GOP candidates during the primaries. Therefore, image is by far one of the most parts of debate strategies before the debate, during the debate, as well as afterward.
When considering the days before the first presidential debate on October third, media stories and discussions started to influence people on what they should expect from the candidates. These expectations were somewhat affected by the images of the candidates we had up until that point in the election. As CBS News writer, Lucy Madison, writes, “ The stakes are enormous for Mitt Romney," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist…’He goes into the debate behind, after a difficult summer, a failed convention, and a series of self-inflicted wounds in September. The hour is growing short to make up ground and come from behind in the swing states where he needs to win if he wants to become elected president’ (Madison). In other words, until the first debate, the media analyzed what has happened during Romney’s campaign for presidency and the mishaps that negatively affected his image and put Obama in the lead of voting polls. Therefore, a strategy behind debating is to obtain a positive image to sway voters and allow Americans to determine if an individual candidate, whether he is a challenger or incumbent, “can be trusted with the responsibilities of the presidency” (Madison). With their image, many people are also introduced to the types of plans/goals of each candidate and the themes behind their campaigns.
Another strategy behind the debating is to introduce and exemplify overall themes of each candidate’s campaign. Since the national conventions almost two months ago, Americans have begun to hear some of the themes behind each candidate: Barack Obama’s “Forward” slogan, as well as Mitt Romney’s “Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose”- which according to CNN, may be backfired because Romney allegedly stole the slogan from the television show Friday Night lights (Will Romney Punt His Slogan?). This article, along with other aspects of media, clearly exemplifies the affect of media on these campaign themes. Romney’s image may be affected now that the “writer-director Peter Berg sent a letter to Romney's campaign Friday [saying] ‘I was not thrilled when I saw that you have plagiarized this expression to support your campaign…Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series’ (Will Romney Punt His Slogan?). This exemplifies how fast the candidate’s themes and slogans, along with any promises they make as they answer questions during the debates can become so well known as they are repeated constantly throughout the campaign and becoming memorable for Americans.
Griffin Part 2
ReplyDeleteFinally, a third strategy behind the debates are to use audience members to project a positive view on how the debate went, including who was the more of the “winner” of the debate, and how the media may influence the reactions and opinions of audiences watching the debates. When considering the vice presidential debate from last Thursday, many media outlets were determining if Joe Biden had made up for Obama’s weak performance in the first presidential debate earlier this month. ABC News reporter, Abby D. Phillip, discussed the contrasting views, behaviors, and even body language between Biden and Ryan during the VP Debate in her article, “VP Debate: Body Language Expert Sees Big Contrast.” Phillip states, “If Vice President Joe Biden channeled his inner pit bull, Rep. Paul Ryan brought his inner puppy to the debate stage, according to facial expression expert Chris Kowal. ‘ [Paul Ryan's] looks of surprise and the smile that he has…he comes across as very cute and likable…when you pair it up with the more aggressive bull dog type of Joe Biden, people are going to become more protective of their candidate as a result” (Phillip). In other words, Biden seemed more aggressive according to this news article, where as Ryan seemed more gentile and naïve since he is still very new to politics and debating. Hence, as Trent et al write, “Most students of political debate believe that the effects often lag behind the debate itself. Frequently, audience members do not reach final judgment until they have discussed the debate with others and have observed the media reaction” (Trent 280). In other words, the media does have an effect on what our opinions are on politics, since they can take certain aspects of debates and/or speeches to exaggerate certain points. Furthermore, any controversy or falsehoods that are released during political campaigning are most likely to be covered by the media for the sake of the public’s access to news and information.
Works Cited
Madison, Lucy. "The First Debate: High Stakes for Obama, Romney." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. .
Phillip, Abby D. "VP Debate: Body Language Expert Sees Big Contrast." ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
"Will Romney Punt His Slogan?" CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
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DeletePolitical debate strategies have played an important role in the 2012 debates. One that has played a significant role throughout the last few weeks of this election is that of lowering public expectations. Trent explains the importance of the lowering of expectations in her book titled, Political Campaign Communication, writing, “If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover, if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well, it may be perceived as a major victory (Trent et. Al. 267). In the weeks leading up to the election, candidates and their parties go out of their way to both put themselves down and praise their opponent. The media have conveyed numerous different instances throughout the 2012 campaign in which both the republican and democratic parties speak of their nominee’s shortcoming when it comes to debate strategy, preparedness, and oratory skill in general.
ReplyDeleteJen Psaki, the presidential traveling press secretary, spoke of Obama’s unpreparedness. She explained how the “constraints of governing” have kept the president from studying for the debate (The Week). Psaki continued, stating, “Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history” (The Week). She even went so far as to state that the president, “could even fall off the stage” (The Week). However, Obama’s team is not the only one guilty of lowering expectations of their candidate. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan spoke of his “doubts” for his running mate, explaining, "Obama is a very gifted speaker. The man has been on the national stage for many years. He's an experienced debater; he's done these kinds of debates before. This is Mitt's first time on this kind of a stage" (The Week). With expectations low for their candidate’s success and high for their opponent’s, parties hope that viewers will both hold the opponent to a higher standard and be impressed if their candidate does even remotely well.
Another strategy that has been apparent throughout the 2012 debates is that of using ads to underscore debate themes. The advertisements are used to emphasize the highlights of a candidate’s debate and ensure that viewers are made aware of the major points made throughout the program. TIME Magazine described one of the more prominent post debate advertisements released by Romney’s campaign team, writing, “a new television advertisement [used] footage from running mate Paul Ryan‘s debate last week with Vice President Joe Biden. The ad features clips of Ryan saying the government “can’t keep spending money we don’t have.” His comments are juxtaposed with video from the debate of Biden laughing (TIME). Through this commercial, displayed both via television and internet, Romney’s campaign attempts to portray the idea that Ryan is a candidate that will take the nation’s issues seriously while Biden is not.
Viewers have also witnessed the debate strategy of devising and rehearsing possible answers through the media coverage of this year’s presidential debates. Prior to the debates, viewers tuned in to be informed of both candidates’ participation in mock debates in order to prepare for the challenges that they would be facing in the upcoming presidential debates. The candidates also met with their advisors in order to discuss preparations for the debates and to anticipate the questions they will need to answer in order to emerge victorious. Trent discussed the importance of this, writing, “the candidate and a limited number of aides should work through possible questions and answers, consistently keeping in mind overall themes and target audiences” (Trent et. All 271). CBS reported that, “Romney and his top aides held a practice session Saturday morning at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio”, and went on to discuss Obama’s trip to his James River golf resort where the president will prep for upcoming debate (CBS).
DeleteThe media coverage of the presidential debates throughout the 2012 campaign so far can be characterized as extremely critical. The media makes it almost impossible for candidates to slip through the cracks with an unconfirmed or incorrect piece of information within their debate. Candidates must ensure that each piece of information that they present throughout the debate is correct in order to prevent the attack dog like journalists within the media.
Overall, the candidates participating in the 2012 debates can rest assured that each and every thing that they say upon the debate stage will resonate highly with voters. It is up to them and their advisors to use specific debate strategies in order to ensure that the resonation has a positive effect that could potentially lead the candidate to the big leather chair in the oval office and the title of The President of the United States of America.
Work Cited
"The Presidential Debate: 8 Ridiculous Attempts to Lower Expectations." The Week. N.p., 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Cordes, Nancy. "Obama Preps in Va. for 2nd Debate Showdown." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 13 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
"Debate Preparation Trumps 2012 Campaigning Sunday." TIME.com. N.p., 14 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. New York: Praeger, 1991. Print.
Throughout this election season we have seen many classic debate strategies. Candidates are using tactics such as reducing expectations, repeating themes, and just simply practicing. Even the decision to debate has purpose this year. “If the election seems as though it will be close and both candidates are in doubt about the outcome, the likelihood of political debates is greatly increased” (Trent et al. 265). Although debates are now considered common, the polls indicate that this is going to be a very close election. According to the Gallup polls on October 15th, Obama is leading with 48% of registered voters while Romney is at 46%. However, with likely voters, Romney is up at 49% with Obama trailing at 47%. With such close percentages, the debates have become extremely important in swaying undecided voters during this election season.
ReplyDeleteOne strategy that both Obama and Romney have used this season is to reduce expectations through the media before going in to the debates. For example in “What’s Behind the Debate Expectations Game,” Caldwell states that “Ryan's spokesperson Brendan Buck also called Biden ‘as experienced a debater as anyone in national politics’ and noted that ‘this is Congressman Ryan's first time on this big stage.’” By saying that Ryan is inexperienced, candidates and their campaigns allow for the audience to see greater accomplishments in a typical debate. “By minimalizing expectations campaigners feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize for a weak one” (Trent et al. 268). Since we, as audience members, do not expect much from a candidate, they have the ability to shine greater than if we had higher expectations of them.
Another strategy used by candidates is to relate all issues covered in a debate to an overall theme. Obama demonstrated this in the last Presidential election by using words like hope and change to direct his campaign. He is also repeating this strategy again with this season’s word, “forward.” Romney is also capitalizing on a theme after the first presidential debate held two weeks ago. Martha T. Moore from usatoday.com states that “three new ads from the Romney campaign released today hit on themes the Republican candidate highlighted in his well-received debate performance against President Obama: jobs, debt and disappointment in Obama's four years as president.” By hammering these themes into viewers’ heads, Romney is allowing for his main points to stick. When voters think of Romney, they will begin to think of these ideas associated with him.
A third strategy we have seen a lot of this year is that of practice. For the weeks leading up to the first debate, as well as continuing on throughout, the media have discussed how much practice the candidates are getting. For instance, Fox.com stated, “following a listless first debate, Obama was working with aides on more pointed and aggressive responses to Romney. The campaign's game plan is also to target Romney for what it sees as a willingness to shift his positions to make them more palatable for voters.” Both candidates are learning from experience and how to improve as each debate is completed. Trent et. al explains that practice should be conducted “…in a relaxed atmosphere [where] the candidate and a limited number of aides should work through possible questions and answers, consistently keeping in mind the overall themes and target audiences” (271). Simply by practicing and doing run-throughs of questions, candidates gain confidence and fluidity in their public speaking abilities. So far, the media coverage of the debates has been both critical and admirable. When Obama failed to impress during the first presidential debate, many pundits strongly expressed their disappointment, as we saw in many of the political comedy videos last week. They have also stated how exactly both candidates need to improve in order to win the next debate.
Deletehttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/14/romney-obama-hunker-down-for-debate-prep/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2012/10/05/romney-obama-political-advertising-greg-anthony/1615243/ (Martha T. Moore)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57529085/whats-behind-the-debate-expectations-game/ (Leigh Ann Caldwell)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx
Matthew Struzzi
ReplyDeleteBlog 6
Political debates have become a very important process during the presidential campaigns. Something that used to not be that widespread is now nationwide. For instance in “Political Campaign Communication” the author states, “During the nineteenth century, debating was an important aspect of campaigning, though perhaps not as widespread as it is today. However, a few debates of local or statewide interest did take place. Although Lincoln and Douglas had gained national attention, figures equal stature did not engage in campaign debates in the years that followed. Rather than debating their opponents, in the nineteenth century many candidates utilized surrogate debaters. This practice was especially widespread in nineteenth-century presidential elections. Nevertheless, relatively few nineteenth-century debates received attention beyond their own constituencies, and none attained national prominence” (Trent, 260). It was not until the early 1900s that debates seemed to be a realistic nationwide thing. “By the mid-1920s, due to the growth of radio, national debates began to seem feasible” (Trent, 261).
Now, although political debates are still not required, they are pretty much a consistent part of the campaigning process. Debating has become so intense and important that nowadays, as mentioned in “Political Campaign Communication” there are strategies that candidates follow in order to debate more successfully and maybe use the debates to get people to vote for them, as well. During this presidential debate year there have been many strategies used. One important strategy that has been used during this past debate was a pre-debate strategy called “devising and rehearsing possible answers” (Trent, 271). There is evidence of Mitt Romney for instance, rehearsing his answers and also possibly looking at old Bill Clinton debates to enhance his debates for this presidential election. Another strategy that has been used is a debate strategy called “relating issues to an overall theme” (Trent, 273). For instance, Obama has used the theme in his campaigning that the country is moving forward with his help, and during the debates his themes have been the same, about keeping this country moving forward. The last strategy that has been used during this debate is a post-debate strategy and is called “using ads to underscore debate themes” (Trent, 282). For instance, Obama did not do as well as people thought he would do during the last debate and because of that he has used technology such as the internet to advertise his best moments in the debate to make people see the best parts that he delivered (Trent, 282).
Matthew Struzzi
ReplyDeleteBlog 6 continued
There has been a lot of news media coverage on the past debate and it has been very tough. Most news sources are saying that Obama lost and Mitt Romney won. Still after almost two weeks there is news media coverage on the last presidential debate. For instance, the New York Times said in an article, “But as Mr. Obama huddled with close aides on the spectacular resort grounds of what was the Kingsmill Plantation in the 17th century, the history that dominated his presidential study sessions was of a far more recent kind: how not to repeat the mistakes he made at his first debate with Mitt Romney a week and a half ago, when he stood by passively as an aggressive Mr. Romney dominated him, abruptly curtailing Mr. Obama’s momentum and turning the campaign upside down” (Cooper, 1). Further, in a Politico article it stated, “In the days leading up to Mitt Romney’s Denver debate triumph, the team helping him prepare reached a breakthrough with one critical insight: The candidate did best when he felt free to talk like a businessman, pitching voters as though he were pitching investors” (Allen, 1).
As you can see, debates have become a very important part of the political campaigning process, and the news media coverage has been showing that with a very tough angle. Many people and news sources know how important the debates are and what strategies that the candidates use and this is shown with the articles that have been out the past couple of weeks.
Works Cited
Allen, Mike. “Inside the Campaign: How Mitt Romney Preps.” Politico. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. http://www.politico.com
Cooper, Helene. “Obama’s Prep Session Goal: Don’t Repeat Mistakes of Last Debate.” New York Times. N.p., 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Matthew Harkins
ReplyDeleteIn this year’s presidential campaign, we have seen the use of many strategies to help the candidate’s success in winning the election. During the pre-debate period of the first presidential debates this year, there was an evident effort in lowering the public’s expectations of the candidate’s performance. “As the media go about their job, they will seek comments from the campaigners. Campaigners will normally tend to downplay the potential outcome of the debate. By minimizing expectations, campaigners feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize for a weak one.” (Trent et al 268) Essentially, the campaigns strategy to lower the public’s expectations comes from utilizing the media’s coverage of the campaigns by releasing statements of expectation to the public. The reason to lower the expectation of a candidate is to make it appear as if the candidate exceeded the general expectation.
This year, we saw this strategy being used by both parties. In a report on CNN during the pre-debate period of the first presidential debate this year, they highlight statements made by each campaign, clearly trying to lower expectations. Beth Meyers, an advisor to the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was quoted from a memo she had circulated stating, “Obama is a universally acclaimed public speaker and has substantial debate experience under his belt,” She later explained, “Based on the campaign he's run so far, it's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney” (CNN) This statement clearly has an intention to benefit the overall outcome of the campaign. By putting Obama on the pedestal for his speaking and debate skills, it implies a position of handicap for Mitt Romney during the debate, lowering the public expectations for him, but also attempts to raise the publics expectations of the opposing candidate.
Another evident debate strategy in this years campaign is the use of advertisements to underscore debate themes. An example that interested me was the Obama for America ad called “Big Bird”. This ad was release after the first debate. Although this ad did not highlight the moments in which Obama shined during the debate, it exploited a topic the news media and satirical comedy programs focused on. In a report on CBS news it describes, “The ad grew out of a comment by Romney in the presidential debate in which the Republican presidential candidate said that while he likes Big Bird, he wants to cut off the small government subsidy for public broadcasting.” (CBS) Interestingly, since the public was exposed so much to one big bird comment, the Obama for America campaign used it to their advantage and made an advertisement, attacking Romney’s views in a sarcastic way.
The third strategy I will discuss is the strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. I will focus on the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, and his performance in implementing this strategy. Romney did a good job in the first debate. That’s not to say whether everything he said had validity, but he was aggressive and confident, which is what really matters when trying to sway the general public. Romney attacked Obama and his policies, associating them with Obama and “big government”. Romney, also firmly kept the his own campaign themes, by assuring his methods would create jobs and promote small business, without cutting the deficit. Both candidates stayed true the their campaign themes, but Romney, tried to exploit Obama and associate his methods with different themes. The strategies in debates are important, but only one of the three presidential debates has occurred. The campaigns use the media to strategically distribute ideas and expectations to the public, but the media also generates and distributes views to the public, making campaigns have to improvise their strategies due the medias coverage of the debates.
Matthew Harkins (Cont.)
ReplyDeleteThe media’s coverage of the debates has been interesting to me. I notice that news coverage as well as satirical shows revolving around the debates, in essence, presented very similar opinions that I had after watching the debate. This allowed me to give some credibility back to news media. I felt as if news media was what determined the public’s views, but it actually just reflects the views of those who watched the debates. The issue lies in those who didn’t watch the debates themselves and base their information of the news. As we all know, Mitt Romney surprised many with his performance and aggression during the debate. The general consensus seemed to determine him the victor of the first debate, possibly changing the minds of voters. What I want to see is the Obama’s performance in the upcoming debates. Obama seemed as if he wasn’t focused or energetic about the debate, but when considering all of the strategy behind every single move in a campaign it makes me wonder, was Obama’s performance in the first debate intentional, possibly a strategy of the Democratic campaign. A lot of information was revealed from Mitt Romney, while not much was revealed from Obama as he struggled to defend, in such a way the general public could understand. Maybe this was intentional to gain information on Romney, and come back Obama’s plan for his second term in which Romney couldn’t argue as well as attacking Romney’s stance. All this strategy we observe in class makes me reluctant to think either party is doing better in the race.
The media also does a thorough job of presenting statistics, as well as predicting, or informing their audience what they believe the candidates need to do to keep their positions strong in the campaign. An example from a blog from NBC News describes Obama and his goals for tonight by saying, “Now it's Obama facing a crucial moment -- to fully turn the page on that first debate performance. The president isn't behind, and he still holds more paths to 270 electoral votes. But he needs to stop Romney's momentum and get it back on his side. Our bottom line: Tonight is all about suburban women; it has been Obama’s demographic firewall. Romney has made progress with them on his fav rating and on handling the economy, but not on ballot test. Tonight will tell us whether he continues to make progress.” (NBC News) Clearly the media is following the campaigns relentlessly, and continue to inform their audience of the events and news happening. At the same time the medias coverage can be used by campaign strategists to their advantage.
Works Cited
Montopoli, Brian, and Steve Chaggaris. "Sesame Workshop to Obama: Take Big Bird Ad down." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Todd, Chuck, Mark Murray, Domenico Montenaro, and Brooke Brower. "First Thoughts: Why Tonight's Debate Could Be so Crucial, Part 2." First Read. Nbcnews.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Unit, CNN Political, Peter Hamby, Rachel Streitfeld, and Ashley Killough Contributed to This Report. "Campaigns Play Debate Expectations Game - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
One of the most prominent debate strategies we have seen this year is actually the first one mentioned in the book. Lowering Public Expectations was utilized by both Obama and Romney prior to the first debate. Obama stated that basically he was just “okay” at debating while Romney was a formidable opponent. Since the first debate we have obviously heard no such talk, as it does nothing at this point in the campaign to try to lower expectations in such a way again.
ReplyDeleteAnother debate strategy we have seen utilized is devising and rehearsing possible answers. Both candidates trained by using mock debates with members of their respective parties prior to the first debate. And while Obama's was not largely discussed publicly, it was clear that it was happening. Romney on the other hand, had it made very clear who he was debating and his campaign even made comments on the fact that he was training for the first debate.
A third debate strategy which I think we saw employed mostly by Romney during the first debate is developing an image, or in his case, redeveloping. Prior to the debate Romney's positions on most topics were very clear. What he stated in the debate was also very clear, however it was a very different picture that he painted himself as. During the debate Romney was able to catch Obama off-guard in front of the entire nation by changing many of his previous stances on issues to appear to a greater audience. As Obama pointed out the next day, still in Colorado; “The man onstage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. And that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year.”
Overall, I would say that the debate coverage has been somewhat poor in quality. To me, it seems as if the media is just looking to increase their ratings by turning the debates into a football game, rather than an area for political discourse. The focus is on “who won” the debate, without even a mention of the fact that Romney changed many stances they declared him the clear-cut winner. I found nothing on CBS news discussing this blaring issues, and I think that traditional reporting is again, failing to provide people with what they actually need. While it was very clear that Romney took control in the first debate, that does not mean that he was necessarily telling the truth, and this should have been pointed out. We saw the same lack of fact-checking on major media outlets after the Vice Presidential debate, with a focus on “who won” instead of what was presented. Paul Ryan was able to slip away again with saying that 6 independent studies found that their tax plan raises revenue. According to politifact.com this is not true, “Ryan said that six studies verify that the numbers in the Romney tax plan add up. Hearing that, you might think that each is independent research. But not all studies are created equal and these come from people or groups with ties to Romney.”
I truly think that the mainstream media should be analyzing what is said versus what has previously been said. If somebody contradicts what they said last night, or last week, they need to be called out for it. After all, as President Obama said “if you wanna be President you owe the American people the truth,” but then again, take that as a grain of salt because he partakes in the distortions too.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. eBook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvmDJaI-Geg
The presidential debates play an important role in our presidential elections. Because of the importance of these debates, strategies have been created for the candidate in hopes of using the debates to their full advantage in gaining more votes come Election Day. Throughout history presidential debates have been very effective in either hurting a candidate’s popularity, along with boosting a candidates popularity. There are pre-debate strategies, debate strategies, and post-debate strategies. Pre-debate strategies include: lowering public expectations, determining a target audience and devising and rehearsing possible answers for the upcoming debate. During the actual debate, debate strategies are relating issues to an overall theme, and developing an image. Finally, post-debate strategies consist of offering a large, well-coordinated surrogate effort, using ads to underscore debate themes, and using audience members to project a positive view. All of these tactics are done to gain approval from potential voters and the media.
ReplyDeleteThe media does pay special attention to these debate strategies and cover stories about them and the candidate. Before the first presidential debate that occurred in the beginning of October, reports were saying that Obama was lowering public expectations before the debate occurred. Although, for the presidential debate that was held tonight it was reported by CNN that both candidates did the exact opposite of one of the pre-debate tactics. Instead of lowering expectations for tonight’s debate both candidates raised them. Governor Mitt Romney’s surrogate, Chris Christie, made statements saying that Romney was going to do very well and change the pace of the election thus far. He was quoted stating, “Romney can walk and
chew gum at the same time… I’m not worried”. Governor Chris Christie’s comments certainly raised expectations for Romney. This may not have been the best idea because on does not want to set the voters expectations to high because even if a candidate does well in the debate it will be overseen by what the viewers were expecting him to do.
ReplyDeleteDuring the debate one could clearly see both candidates stating their point of view and then relating it back to their overall campaign message. Obama’s message is that our country has been improving and he wants four more years to continue his work as president, while Romney’s overall message is that he knows he has what it takes to get the economy going because of his business in the private sector background. Romney also goes back often to discussing his five point plan. In tonight’s debate this was something that was seen a lot. The candidates also were continuing to develop their images. Obama was trying to reignite his voters from 2008 this was shown when one gentleman stated he had voted for Obama in 2008 and wanted to know why he should vote for Obama again. Romney was trying to be relatable towards the camera and individuals in the arena. This was shown with the young man who asked the first question about attending college, the debt that needs to be paid off, and his opportunity for employment when he graduates. Romney asked him to repeat his name and asked him personal questions such as when he would graduate.
After the debate Obama used the post-debate strategy of using ads to underscore debate themes. After the first presidential debate was over President Obama re-election campaign aired an ad the very next day disagreeing with Romney’s comments about taxes in Denver. In one part the ad stated, “’If we can’t trust him here…’ the narrator says over an image of the debate stage. ‘How could we ever trust him here?’ the narrator continues, with a photo of the Oval Office displayed” (Killough). This ad will be shown in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia. It will be interesting to see what other debate strategies are used as the presidential election goes on.
Works Cited
Davidsen, Dana. "Raising the Bar: Christie Says Romney Will Do 'extraordinarily Well' Wednesday." Raising the Bar: Christie Says Romney Will Do âextraordinarily Wellâ Wednesday â CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 30 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Killough, Ashley. "That Was Fast: Romney Debate Remarks in New Obama Ad." â CNN Political Ticker. N.p., 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Seventh ed. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
In the presidential debates of 2012, we as viewers are seeing many of the debate strategies discussed by Trent et al in Political Communications being used. In my opinion, the most heavily used strategy is developing an image. Yes, I believe that the image of these two candidates encompasses them and can be displayed through things other than the debates, such as social media. However, during the debates is when that true image is exposed, right there on the TV screen, as real as ever. During these debates, you get exactly what is happening, there’s no time to fix up an image, appearance, or anything. It’s a bit more natural. While doing the chapter 8 reading, one of Trent’s ideas regarding the 2008 presidential debates really stuck out to me and made me think about the current 2012 debates. Trent wrote, “The physical contrast between the two men contributed to their respective images. Obama simply looked younger, more vigorous, and more energetic than the older, gray-haired McCain.” (Trent et al 275) My first thought after reading this was that the words used to describe 2008 Obama could certainly be used to describe Mitt Romney in the first presidential debate of this year, while the latter could now describe Obama today. During the first debate, Romney came out with a bold appearance, looking fresher, younger, and frankly more interested than the incumbent. President Obama looked tired, worn out, and definitely a lot older than four years ago. Immediately when they appeared on the screen, viewers noticed Obama’s apathy and quickly began to make it a major focus of the debates, disregarding the issues at hand. The physical image made a major impact and somewhat gave Romney an advantage before the debate really started.
ReplyDeleteIn this campaign, Governor Romney is so easily able to identify as the “challenger” we’ve discussed in previous chapters. Going up against someone who has been our president for four years gives him a clear advantage because he has many more failures to hold Obama accountable for. That was Romney’s image automatically going into the first debate. For Obama, I was curious to see what role he decided to play in that first debate. Instead, the image created for me was one I did not find memorable.
A post-debate strategy discussed in the chapter eight readings talks about the idea that, “…the well-prepared campaign will be ready to try to influence audience perceptions of the debate as soon as it concludes.” (279) Well, I believe the times have changed and instead we find ourselves submerged in social media and the Internet, eagerly choosing a winner after every sentence and going back and forth instead of waiting until the end when all the information can be processed at once to form a clear opinion. Yes, the conversation continues for days after the debate, however the conversation between the audience begins when the conversation between the candidates begins, which could potentially make a huge difference. Trent also writes, “Frequently, audience members do not reach final judgment until they have discussed the debate with others and have observed the media reaction.” (280) Is that always a good thing, though? I don’t believe so, because it allows for too much influence rather than a person formulating their own true opinion based on what they just saw and simply nothing else.
ReplyDeleteAnother debate strategy prevalent due to news media coverage of the 2012 debates is the idea of lowering public expectation. After the first debate, I believe the news media jumped right on Obama and his apathy and found Romney to be the clear winner. However, I sort of believe that worked in Obama’s favor because it truly began to lower people’s expectations of him, especially for the second debate. Going into the second debate, I’m sure people were curious to see what Obama had up his sleeve. Reflecting on his first performance, maybe some people thought his second would be all too similar. However, he came out much stronger and really redeemed herself. According to a Politico article released just an hour after the debate concluded, Obama was “Gutsy. Presidential. Everything that Obama wasn’t in his first debate, in fact. Was this really the same person? Just 12 days later?” (Politico: “Presidential debate: Obama snaps back hard) President Obama had the power to set everyone’s expectations lows and then ultimately rise to the occasion when given his second chance.
Works Cited
Epstein, Reid J. “Obama says debate prep ‘going great.’” Politico. 14 October 2012. Web. 17 October 2012.
Simon, Roger. “Presidential debate: Obama snaps back hard.” Politico. 16 October 2012. Web. 17 October 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Jay Tenem
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of media hype leading up to the first debate after Obamas less than stellar performance…Years ago the debates and political conventions were a lot more important than they are today. In todays time the public knows who the nominees are going to be long before the conventions. This is mostly due to the non-stop media coverage on the road with every news network having a “road to the election” segment.
After the first debate the political coverage changed. Because of the non-stop coverage the outlets sometimes run out of important news worthy stories. You start to see a lot more personal filler stories such as the Pizza Parlor owner who gave President Obama a bear hug. This video went viral almost immediately. Between the first and second debates the coverage starts to focus on the candidates performances during the debate and they start to break down the Do’s and Don’ts for the second debate.
Years ago the debates used to be set up differently where the candidates could actually debate each other on certain issues and not be limited to such a short period of times due to sponsorship (commercials) and everything that goes along with having anything on primetime TV. What a lot of networks do is use certain audience members to project a positive view on the debates. (Trent et al 282) The networks could do this by pre-interviewing the subjects before they go on air. Networks such as Fox News that are known for being conservative would normally go the route of making Obama look bad and Romney look good.
Every move that a candidate makes is very strategic, including walking into a pizza parlor that television cameras are already inside of, to the owner getting permission from the secret service to hug the President. In the Presidents re-election campaign you would think it would be easier because he has already done this once before, he knows how the debates and the road to the election is run. With that being said he has also had four years of practice answering questions about everything under the sun. According to Trent one of the candidates main goals are to create an image that is suitable for them and to keep that image throughout the entire race. (Trent et al 274)
When it comes to debates specifically Senator John McCain who ran against Obama in 2008 said in a recent interview that the candidates have been heavily prepared on the possible questions and they know how to answer around seven out of every ten questions asked. Now that we are only a few weeks away from election day and the race is heating up with the second debate being held tonight coverage will likely change over the next few days to discussing the candidates performance in this last debate and who looked better over both of the debates together. Since the candidates don’t stop after the debates they will make some news over the next few days to get all of the political coverage off the debates and onto something else. In some cases this might be a deliberate move by the loosing candidate so people can forget their poor performance.
ReplyDeleteThere are many ploys used by candidates to try and make their opponent look bad in any way possible. A frequent way of doing this is by creating anti-commercials. In the last election between Obama and McCain, one of the candidates challenged the other to additional debated and to do a few “town hall” debates where they would field questions from audience members instead of a moderator. For a politician who is a good speaker this would be a good strategy to try and catch their opponent off guard. It is very hard for a politician to say no to a debate because it would affect their image that they have been building all race long. On the other hand if he does accept he would have a tough road preparing for a debate that he wouldn’t have had to do if not challenged. (Trent et al 265)
Works Cited
1. Norris, Pippa. A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Post- Industrial Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print. .
2. O'Brien, Michael. "Sharp Exchanges Between Obama, Romney At Second Debate" http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/16/14490356-sharp-exchanges-between-obama-romney-at-second-debate?lite. 10 Oct 2012. 10 Oct. 2012 .
3. . Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
The debates we have seen so far during this campaign have been a grandiose display of almost all of the debate strategies discussed in the reading. Just the first strategy alone, lowering public expectations, “Hence, many candidates seek to lower public expectations of their performance. If prior expectations are los, then it may not take a strong effort on that part of the candidates to appear to have done well”(Trent et al 267). We have been asked over and over again by both candidates, to lower our expectations. Maybe it has not been as obvious as ads that said, ‘Lower your expectations I am stiff as a board. I am Mitt Romney and I approve this message.’ or ‘Did you see the first one? I promise I am not a great public speaker. I am Barak Obama and I approve this message.’ but the message was put out there. Lacking a personality and constantly being compared to a robot is something Mitt Romney and his whole campaign has been struggling with, someone with those qualities would never be good at a face to face debate, they would be stiff. Since the first debate the talk around Obama has been how disappointed everyone was in him and how he just was not up to par, really creating this image that maybe he just is not that good at public speaking anymore. While this is going on, the media is playing up everything the candidates are trying to display. In an article released by the Boston Globe, the opening sentence gets straight to the point. “Aides to President Obama said on Sunday that Obama was disappointed by his own performance at last week’s debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Denver”(Borchers 1). If the president is disappointed in himself, why shouldn’t you be disappointed in him as well?
ReplyDeleteDebate preparations such as devising and rehearsing possible answers have also been going on in this campaign. Both candidates have been setting time aside to prepare themselves, and it shows in the debates. It is clear when delivering an answer; the subject has been covered over and over again before hand. “Romney, who has been setting aside time for debate practice since June, was joined by his senior strategy team including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who has been playing Obama” (Associated Press 2). The media has been just as diligent as the candidates, especially in their coverage of the candidates’ preparations. Any moment a candidate stops shaking hands and giving speeches in order to prepare for a debate there is media coverage of that action. “Obama-Biden signs dot the back roads of Vermont, a state that has voted for a Democratic president since 1988. One of the shops in the nearby town of Woodstock is called “The Collective.” And yet, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney chose a friend’s home in rural Vermont to hunker down to prepare for a trio of high stakes debates” (Hunt 1). How much, when, where and with whom a candidate prepares for a debate is not only covered by the media but also used to create a story line of what hard workers the candidates are.
During the debates both Romney and Obama used the strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. “While those issues vary from campaign to campaign, most successful political debaters have been able to integrate specific issues into an overall frame work” (Trent et al 273). As different as Obama and Romney are from their policies to their upbringing, there was a certain aspect to their overall framework that was very similar, and could be summed up with ‘this is why you cannot trust him’. Romney repeatedly brought up how poorly Obama has been doing serving in office, his answers to almost every question had at least one point of how bad Obama has been for this country, and some answers ONLY contained statements about Obama’s term rather than his plan to make things better. Obama consistently brought up through every question that Romney would not be working for the middle class, even when he was defending his term or talking about the future, he would always make the point that Romney was working for the wealthy. Every topic breached and every answer delivered from either candidate had a hint of 'this is why you can't trust him'. The media coverage of the town hall debate at least on ABC played up this theme for both candidates. While they were speaking facts about the subject would come up that would sometimes disprove what they were saying, showing just how much you can not trust him (him being whoever was speaking at the time). Like the rest of the campaign the debates and the preparations for them come off in a certain way. No matter what the candidates do there will be media coverage, but the media gets to decide what the story line is for the candidates, no matter what they do.
ReplyDeleteBorchers, Callum. "Obama Advisers Say President Disappointed Himself with Debate Performance." BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe, 7 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Hunt, Kasie. "Mitt Romney Sequestered in Vermont for Debate Prep." BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe, 6 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Press, Associated. "Obama, Romney Skip Campaigning Sunday to Focus on Preparing for next Debate, Tuesday in NY." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Phil Nobile - Blog Post #6 (1 of 2):
ReplyDeleteThe 2012 debates have already shown a vast array of traditional strategies, as well as integration of some new tools by the press. Although the strategies haven’t changed over the years, interactivity with the people, social media and fact checking have changed the post-debate realm rapidly.
One pre-debate strategy we saw clearly before the first debate on October 3rd was lowering public explanations. This strategy, according to Chapter 8 of the Political Campaign Communication, is essential leading up to debate time to make it seem as if the candidate did excellent when they did not. Campaigners “feel they are putting themselves in the best possible position to capitalize on a strong performance and to rationalize a weak one” (Trent et all, 268). Because of this, and the “landslide” outcome of the first debate in the 2012 campaigns, it has been even tougher for the Romney campaign come round two. According to a Politico article a day prior to the second debate, the Romney campaign began to tout that a Romney win would be impossible, due to the media craving making Obama seem like a “comeback kid.” The author goes on to say that “Romney’s backers…will tell you that their guy likely can’t hold a candle to the congenial Obama in a town-hall format,” when in reality, Romney has longstanding tradition of doing well in town-hall style, and even held “Ask Mitt Anything” forums in 2008 across the country” (Romano).
Another debate strategy seen by this year’s campaigns has been relating issues to an overall theme. Romney has been consistently stating that the policies of the past four years have failed while Obama has been imploring the American people to give him another four years to initiate all of his policies. According to the reading, skilled debaters will use their themes heavily in the opening and closing statements, as well as “reinforce it in answers to as many specific questions as possible” (Trent et all, 273). Often, the candidates in the past two debates would avoid answering questions entirely, and instead stray away towards seemingly calculated responses, such as referring to Romney’s policies as the same old policies from the Bush era, or calling Obama’s policies a failure. These enforcers, especially when repeated, give the viewers a take-away from the debate, so if they don’t remember much else, they’ll remember a consistent theme.
Phil Nobile - Blog Post #6 (2 of 2):
DeleteFinally, an essential post-debate strategy seen in the past few debates has been offering a large, well-coordinated surrogate effort. The moment after each debate concluded, the press rushed to surrogates of both sides, flooding them with questions about their candidate. Without hesitation or surprise, each surrogate instantly claimed victory. On top of claiming victory, surrogate regurgitated many of the talking points of their candidates. I found these strategies most interesting after the first debate. Although pundits and press alike almost immediately marked it a Romney victory, Obama’s surrogates not only didn’t admit defeat, but claimed a victory of their own. Although this isn’t surprising, it is interesting to note the perhaps acquiescent demeanor that surrogates must undergo by not conceding in any way.
So far, I would characterize the coverage of the debates as more social media and interactivity dependent than ever before. FoxNews had a constant twitter update on their feed, letting viewers know of the amount of tweets regarding the debate per minute. CNN had an appeal graph of sorts, which honed in on when a non-bias group would become amused or excited by a particular candidate’s performance. Unlike before, these factors have become a topic of discussion with the press and pundits, and are stressed as important because of this.
Romano, Lois. "Second presidential debate: Romney camp says media want Obama comeback." Politico. N.p., 15 2012. Web. 17 Oct 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
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ReplyDeleteIn terms of their influence on presidential campaigns, I find debates to be rather intriguing. For fierce political junkies, debates are the World Series. Two politicians square off and battle with political rhetoric, one hoping to come out the victor. For these people the debates are more so entertainment than a crucial deciding factor in selecting a candidate. For others, though, the debates are where much of the deciding about the candidates takes place. For people who do not closely follow politics, but still feel like they should vote, the debates are one stop shops. They able these people to get an up close look at each candidate and hear him speak about various issues in a short time that does not require too much commitment or participation from the individuals. For this reason candidates spend much time in preparation for the debate. It is also for this reason that the debates are so heavily covered by the media.
ReplyDeleteSince debates play an important role in each candidate’s campaign, it is no surprise that they invoke certain strategies regarding the debates, just as strategies are used in other aspects of the campaign. For the debate that happened just last night on October 16, it appeared that Obama had employed the pre-debate strategy of “lowering public expectations”. As Trent et al explains, “If public expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on part of the candidate to appear to have done well” (Trent et al, 267). In the previous debate the media claimed that Obama had a weak performance, did not speak to the best of his ability and overall let Romney dominate the debate. Previous to the first debate, the media had high expectations of Obama due to past success at debates. Previous to last’s night debate, the media just seemed to hope that he would perform better than he did at the first one. The immediate post-debate coverage had Obama appearing strong with a good performance. Following the debate The Washington Post blog “The Fix” placed Obama at the top of their winners list saying, “It was a near-certainty that the incumbent would improve on his mystifying bad first debate performance. And, he did. But he also did more than that. After coming out a little too hot — Obama seemed to be on the wrong side of the angry/passionate divide in the first 15 minutes — he moderated his tone to the sober/serious yet forceful persona that he needed in this debate…Obama’s performance wasn’t flawless and he didn’t score a clean win as Romney did in the first debate. But, he was the better performer this time around” (Cillizza). Comparing Obama’s performance to his at the first debate, Obama looked drastically better. While perhaps his performance was not as flaw free as it could be, that seemed to be overlooked by the media. I wonder if they would be more critical of Obama if he had not had such a lackluster performance the first time around? I’m not sure if the Obama team purposely employed this strategy of looking expectations, but nonetheless it worked for them.
Both Romney and Obama used the strategy of “relating issues to an overall theme” and worked to “integrate specific issues into an overall framework” (Trent et al, 273). Both sought to use the themes that their campaigns have been respectively focused on. For Romney that meant a repeated acknowledgement that he has experience in making jobs and he is ready to make jobs again for the United States. For Obama that meant reflecting on what he has accomplished for the American as President and how much more he would be able to accomplish if he was given four more years. This strategy seemed to be aimed at those mostly unfamiliar with the candidates, who are not aware of each campaign’s main talking points.
Regarding the first debate, Obama’s team used the pos-debate strategy of “using audience members to project a positive view” when he used ads “to reiterate and stress a key idea made in the debate” (Trent et al, 282). After Romney famously said that while he liked PBS and he loved Big Bird he would have to stop the subsidiary to PBS. Obama’s team quickly produced a thirty second ad in which it says that Romney does not worry about crooks on Wall Street, but the real crook of Big Bird. The Big Bird remark made Romney looked more unfavorable and therefore made Obama look more favorable. Obama took that idea from the debate and used it in the ad to convey a negative image of Romney, which would hopefully then craft a positive image of himself.
DeleteDespite the use of these various strategies, the media’s coverage seems to be primarily focused on who won the debate. Immediately after the debate last night my Twitter feed was jammed with the question, “So who won?” As previously mentioned “The Fix” even sought to rank the winners and losers like you would rate fantasy football players. Theirs was not the story where the comparison between sports coverage and political coverage could be seen. NBC News’ story discussing the candidates bickering over the time they were given during last night’s debate began with “The second presidential debate Tuesday night was a football fan's dream, turning into a battle over time of possession as President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney battled almost as fiercely over the clock as they did over what they would do in the White House” (Johnson). It is the second week in a row that I have seen NBC compare a political event to a sporting event. Last week it compared Obama’s debate performance to a baseball team losing with its ace on the mound. Not only does debate coverage invoke comparisons to sporting events, but it is also covered in similar way. When you watch coverage of football game, the coverage is composed of what critical plays were made, errors that were made and most importantly and ultimately who won. The political coverage of debates focuses on the big moments for the candidates, the gaffes or incorrect statements made and then again who won. The competiveness of our culture that is so often found in sports seems to have seeped into election coverage as well. This competiveness of culture could attribute to why the question of “Who won?” appears to be the media’s favorite question after debates and why candidates employ different strategies to essentially win the debates and win over the American people.
Works Cited
Cillizza, Chris. "Winners and Losers from Second Presidential Debate." The Fix on The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Johnson, M. Alex. "Time, Gentlemen, Please! Obama, Romney Bicker over the Debate Clock." NBC Politics. NBCNews.com, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., Robert V. Friedenberg, and Robert E. Denton, Jr. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. 7th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print
The Presidential debates have become a staple part of the Presidential campaigns. Yet, this has not always been the case. According to the reading, the first significant debate that occurred in the history of the United States was the debate between Lincoln and Douglass for the senate seat in 1858. After this debate, the next really significant presidential debate was between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. This was the very first televised debate, and while it was a very popular debate that is still spoken about today this also was not the debate that made presidential debating an essential part of the campaign season. In fact it as not until sixteen years later in 1976 in the debate between Carter and Ford that debates became a staple item on the agenda for the presidential candidates.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that both the Romney and Obama campaigns have focused on their debate tactics to prepare for their three debates. In the Trent reading it explains that debate strategies are broken up into three separate categories. Trent elaborates by saying,” First are those strategies that take place prior to the debate itself. Second are those the candidate attempts to implement during the debate. Finally are those following the debate.” (Trent et. All 267). There are some strategies that both of the candidates seem to be using in order to make themselves come out as the winner of these debates. The first strategy that both candidates have used is what the book refers to as “lowering public expectations”. The text explains, “Many candidates seek to lower public expectations of their performance. If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well it may be perceived as a major victory”. ( Trent et. All 267).
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both used, and perhaps overused this approach. Each candidates campaign team had been telling the media that their opponent really had the advantage when it came to debating, and they believed that their opponent would probably win the debate. Romney’s campaign stated this regardless of the fact that he had plenty of practices with debates from the Republican primaries. Obama’s campaign also gave the upper hand to his opponent, completely disregarding his great success in the 2008 debates in the Democratic primaries and in the presidential election of 2008. He is also widely known as one of the best speakers of our time period. Since, both of these candidates clearly were prepared and ready for these debates they were simply using the “lower the expectations” strategy.
ReplyDeleteAnother pre-debate method that both candidates have used is what the reading described as “devising and rehearsing possible answers”. There are a few different steps involved in the strategy, but the second one is the one that both of these candidates have attracted the media attention for participating in. This step is described as, “ The candidate should practice the answers in a situation as similar to the real one as possible. For nationally televised presidential debates, this has meant simulating, the television studio or auditorium to be used, and often utilizing a stand in opponent (Trent et. All 271). Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both spent a lot of time practice debating in these types of formats, and there have been reports that the same has been done for the second debate. In an article from The Guardian, it said that,” As with the preparations for the first debate in Denver, senator John Kerry is playing the role of Romney and Obama’s head of communications, Anita Dunn is playing Crowley”(MacAskell). In terms of Romney’s debate preparations the article reported,” Romney practiced in Ohio on Saturday night and since Sunday at a house outside Boston, Massachusetts, with senator Rob Portman as Obama and, in a piece of gender-switching one of the Romney’s aides Peter Flaherty as Crowley (MacAskell). It is obvious, but both of them want to get as much practice that will be similar to the actual debate as possible.
The candidates both took ample opportunity in the first debate to follow the debating ploy of “relating issues to an overall theme”. The book explains that a successful debater has to be able to relay all of their answers back to one common theme. Trent explains,” As the debate progresses, candidates must constantly respond to specific questions on the issues of the day. While these issues may vary from campaign to campaign most successful political debates have been able to integrate the specific issues into an overall framework” (Trent et.all 273). Barack Obama’s over all messages has to always focus on the good that he has accomplished in the past four years, and how he will keep America moving forward. In an article from CBS news, it explains how Obama will need to really send this message home to voters after his poor performance in the last debate. In the article it went on to say, ‘ the debate will also be the last chance for the Obama campaign to talk about the economy. The campaign has changed their strategy slightly-now, they are betting people feel better about the unemployment rate’s recent dip below 8 percent. Campaign strategists are making a bet that voters feel good enough about how things are going that they can say ‘don’t blow it by changing presidents’”(John Dickerson). It will be interesting to see how well Barack Obama does tonight to make a strong correlation back to his theme of keep moving forward.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Dickerson, John. "Debate Is Obama's Last Chance to Talk about the Economy." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
MacAskill, Ewen. "Obama and Romney Debate Again: Strategies for the Town-hall Style Forma." The Guardian. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
Debate strategies are very important in an election in order for a candidate to be successful. There are strategies that are used before a debate, during a debate, and after a debate to help the candidates connect with the voters. In the pre-debate period, “The interaction between the candidate and campaign staff on the one hand, and the media on the other, can be crucial” (Trent et al 268). The campaigners strive to lower the public’s expectations, determine the target audience, and candidate’s discuss and rehearse possible answers (Trent et al 267 – 272).
ReplyDeleteSome campaign strategies that have been seen leading up to the 2012 election are relating issues to an overall theme, developing an image, and using audience member to project a positive view (Trent et al 273 – 282). By creating a theme for the campaign, it makes it easier for an audience to understand and reflect on the candidate’s message when it is being used repeatedly. Trent et al says, “Skilled political debaters will first present their overall theme in the introductory statement…Then they will reinforce it in the answers…Finally, they will return to it in their concluding statement” (273). This outline delivers the message to the listeners and can help give the candidate a direction with his answers.
An example of this has been seen with President Obama during the debates. During the 2008 election, everyone was aware that Obama’s main theme was “Change.” This year, Obama’s new theme is “Forward.” His campaign highlights the changes he has made and how he can continue to improve our country by moving forward. On BarackObama.com, it lays out the foundation for his new plan. It discusses auto recovery, jobs, veterans, health care, education, and energy, and the improvements he has made so far and the ways he can build on it if selected for another four years.
During the debates, both candidates have developed an image. “The principal strategies that can be utilized in political debating include the development of a leadership style, personification, and identification (Trent et al 274). The second presidential debate really defined both of their characters. According to the Wall Street Journal online about last night’s debate, “President Barack Obama roared. And Mitt Romney roared back.” Many people doubted Obama after the first debate, saying it was not his strongest performance. Being given a second opportunity, “…he had proclaimed Mr. Romney a protector of the rich; subtly reminded the audience that the Republican’s former private-equity firm sometimes close down plants and made money” (Seib). Obama stressed his views and stated, “ I believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known… I believe that everyone should have a fair shot and everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same rules” (“Obama Draws Case for Second Term”). By saying this, Obama wants to become relatable with the with all people.
One strategy that is used after a debate is to use audience members to project a positive view. According to Trent et al, “The use of prominent spokespersons to present a positive view of the debate and the positing of key moment on the Internet are the most common-post debate strategies” (282). According to a video posted by the Wall Street Journal called, “Assessing the Presidential Debate,” Linda Fowler, Dartmouth College Professor of Government, comments on the debate. She says, “I thought we saw two well prepared, articulate people determined not to give any ground to either one” (Fowler). By highlighting the key aspects debate, she is able to portray a positive view for both of the candidates.
DeleteWorks Cited
“Assessing Tuesday’s Presidential Debate”. Wall Street Journal Online. 17 Oct 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012
"Forward." Obama for America. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
“Obama Draws Case for Second Term” Wall Street Journal Online. 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
Seib, Gerald. "A Lively Debate Again Changes Campaign's Arc." The Wall Street Journal, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012.
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. New York: Praeger, 1991. Print.
Kimberly Rizzitano
ReplyDeleteWhen a heated presidential campaign is proceeding, the political debates become a key part for candidates in so many ways like reaching out to voters, evoking their image, and showing their ability to handle tough situations. So far in the political debates that we’ve seen, both Barak Obama and Mitt Romney have used several debate strategies in hopes of coming out on top. According to Trent in Political Campaign Communication, there are three stages in debate strategies: pre-debate strategies, efforts during the debate, and post-debate strategies. Trent continues in saying “Each is important. A political debate can be won or lost before it takes place, as it takes place, or after it’s held,” (Trent, 267). Essentially, strategies can make or break the race. If a candidate was not implementing any type of plan during any point of the debate, it could hurt them immensely because they may appear unprepared or to not be taking it seriously.
One debate strategy that emerges prior to the debate is determining a target audience. Trent notes, “The candidates must determine who their target audiences are for the debate,” (Trent, 271). Though both presidential candidates seek to appeal to many different demographics, one that has been apparently leading up to the debates is both attempting to aim at the middle class. Each man wishes to appear to be the candidate that will get the results the middle class wants out of them. This has become apparent through their speeches prior to the debates and their advertisements because they continuously highlight the middle class and how they will be the candidate to lift them up. Especially the days just prior to the event, I saw an increase of campaigning towards “the common man”. Both Obama and Romney wish to show the middle class that they empathize with them and understand the struggles they face. Fox News released an article just weeks before the first debate of Obama implementing the strategy of determining his target audience to be the middle class citizen. According to Fox, Obama was quoted saying “This country doesn't succeed when only a few do well," the president said during an early-evening rally in Milwaukee. "America succeeds when the middle class does well,” (FoxNews.com). This shows how Obama was intending on zeroing in on the middle class as a key part in winning the upcoming debates.
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DeleteAnother strategy that each candidate has used has been developing an image. Trent points out that “The principle image strategies that can be utilized in political debating include the development of leadership style, personification, and identification,” (Trent, 275). While watching the debates it became clear that Romney wished to create an image of the “All American Man” who will take a tough approach in leading the country by not giving in or apologizing for leadership decisions. It has also been important for him to dispel the image of him being a rich aristocrat that would not be able to understand the issues of the poor. This also links to Obama’s strategies relating to image. While he paints himself as the man who will bring change to America, he also wishes to show himself as someone who understands poverty and all levels income because he did not grow up in a rich family. This idea of image can be seen in the debates that have already occurred.
Also an important strategy to mention is rehearsing possible strategies. This strategy was implemented by Obama in the second debate. He was able to fluster Romney early in the debate with the controversy over the auto bailout. It is safe to assume he was prepared with this as a strategy to gain ground in the debate. He had a strong force and argument that was successful in faltering his candidate. Obama chose to take the offensive prior to the debate and went through on this plan. Newsweek mentions in an article “The president was able to throw Governor Romney off his “game” early in the debate, putting Romney on defense over the auto bailout,” (DailyBeast.com). Obama was able to use this predebate strategy and implement it during the debate to create a stronger argument and attack thus showing him as a strong candidate.
Works Cited
"Obama Appeals to Middle Class, Jabs at Romney in Weekend of Furious Campaigning." Fox News. FOX News Network, 22 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
O'Donnell, Brett. "Brett O'Donnell: Obama Won on Points, But Romney's Got the Edge." The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. .
Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.
ReplyDeleteDebates this year are just as important as ever when it comes to deciding the next president of the United States. How a candidate acts and is portrayed is just as important as the answers that they give to the American people during a debate. It can affect how that candidate is viewed. After the first presidential debate, a new CNN poll of polls shows Romney leading Obama by one point, 48% to 47%, just a month ago it was the President who was leading. When it comes to debates, there are many strategies that are utilized in order to have a successful debate. Three strategies that are used during this debate season are; lowering public expectations, relating issues to an overall theme, and developing an image. The first strategy that has been used is lowering public expectations. Trent explains the importance of the lowering of expectations, she says, “If prior expectations are low, then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well. Moreover, if a candidate is expected to be outclassed but does well, it may be perceived as a major victory (Trent et. Al. 267). Both the Obama and Romney camps have stated that they feel that their opponent will do better in the debates than they will, thus lowering expectations for candidate. According to the CNN Political Unit, voters feel that President Obama will have an advantage in the three presidential debates. However, his campaign surrogates disagree. “They cite Romney's primary experience of many debates allowing the opposing candidate the time to hone his debating ability.” This lowers the expectation for Obama. “Romney's supporters, of course, see a different picture – in fact, that of David v. Goliath. Obama is considered a very strong debater, they remind, and they downplay Romney's experience.” This lowers the expectations Romney.
In 2012, a debate strategy employed by both presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates was “relating issues to an overall theme” (Trent et al. 273). Soledad O’ Brian of CNN spoke to Jen Psaki, the Obama Campaign's traveling press secretary, about addresses President Obama's preparedness for the debate that happened last night, after he received criticism for his first debate performance. "He has watched the last debate and…he is his own harshest critic. He is coming into this debate energized. People with expect to see a passionate President Obama delivering the case for why he has a better plan for the middle class. Ultimately this is about who is going to be better for the American people for the next four years. So who has a better education plan, who has a better plan for tax cuts, who has a better plan for health care. He feels good about that. He is not going to hide from his positions unlike his opponent..." This statement relates to Obama’s overall theme of moving forward and creating better situations for the American middle class. Romney’s theme is that the last four years have showed no progress or change and that the American people need a leader who can turn things around and can create jobs as well as stimulate the economy.
The final strategy is developing an image. According to Trent, there are two main concerns during a debate. One is the issues and the other is image. (Trent et al. 274) Both Romney and Obama have tried to present themselves as active leaders. Obama wants four more years to make the changes that he is promising and Romney wants an opportunity to be a leader and change what has been done or not been done the past four years. This election, as opposed to the last isn’t solely on looks because Obama no longer looks younger he as aged. However, Obama tends to be more comfortable when speaking, whereas Romney looks stiff and cold to some people
DeleteThe media plays an important role in how effective each candidate is at executing all three of these strategies. The media is there to critique each candidate in how well they executed their strategies and to determine a winner and a loser of each debate. Indeed, “research holds that ‘we judge as important what the media judge as important. Media priorities become our own’” (Trent et al. 287
Works Cited
Davidsen, Dana and Steinhauser, Paul. CNN Political Unit September 24, 2012
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/24/pre-game-debate-prep-and-punditry/?iref=allsearch
O’Brien, Soledad. Starting Point. CNN. October 16, 2012.
http://startingpoint.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/16/obama-campaigns-psaki-president-will-be-energized-at-debate/?iref=allsearch
Trent, Judith S., Robert V. Friedenberg, and Robert E. Denton. Political Campaign Communication : Principles and Practices.Rowman and Littlefield.
This year, we have seen the use of political debate strategies and how they play an important role in the election. The author in Political Campaign Communication explains that there are three stages of debate strategies; those leading up to the debate, those during the debate and, finally, those following the debate. “A political debate can be won or lost before it takes place, as it takes place, or after it is held” (Trent 267). In the 2012 debates, we have seen pre, during and post strategies present including lowering public expectations, developing an image and using ads to underscore debate themes.
ReplyDeleteLeading up to the debates, we have watched both parties try to lower public expectations of their performance. Candidates figure if the public expectation is lowered, “then it may not take a strong effort on the part of the candidate to appear to have done well” (Trent 267). By minimizing or downplaying there skills leading up to it, candidates feel as though they are putting themselves in a greater position to take on a strong performance and rationalize for a weaker one. When asked by reporters about whats the worst thing that could happen, Obama’s campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki jokingly said, “Well, he could fall off the stage” (USA Today 1). As Romney’s senior adviser, Beth Myers was asked about Mitt’s readiness for the upcoming debate, she explained “This will be the eight one-on-one presidential debate of Obama’s career, and for Mitt it will be his first” (USA Today 1). In both instances, the representatives downplayed their candidates upcoming performance.
Another key debate strategy displayed this year is developing a image. For Obama, he has already taken on an image being the previous president. Many look at him as a strong speaker with a great personality, however they need him to be a more aggressive leader. In the first debate, it was clear that Obama was more passive and gentle while Romney came out strong. Obama’s senior advisor, David Axelrod, explained that the president will be taking notes on what was said and next time he will make sure he is more responsive. The first debate was not the way Obama wanted to develop his image (Knowlton 1). On the other hand, Romney’s performance allowed him to be viewed as a stronger leader wiping out Obama’s lead in the polls. Two-thirds of voters said Mr. Romney did a better job than Obama believing he has “improved his standing on most issues and personal characteristics” (Connelly 1). As the candidates now stand virtually even, they must prove who is better described as a strong leader and which is more willing to work with leaders from the opposite party.
ReplyDeleteThe final debate strategy shown this year explains how the candidates use advertising to underscore debate themes. After Obama’s disappointing debate, his campaign developed a new ad titled, “Trust”, which “takes Mr. Romney to task for running away from his tax cut plans that a nonpartisan think tank has estimated would amount to $5 trillion dollars over 10 years” (Crabtree 1). The ad is aimed to downplay Romney’s strong debate performance which will not hold up over time, according to David Axelrod, Obama’s senior strategist (Crabtree 1). Romney’s campaign felt they did not need to answer back with an ad knowing he has clearly taken the first debate.
Works Cited
Connelly, Marjorie. "Debate Bounce: Romney Gains in Pew Poll." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Crabtree, Susan. "New Obama Ad: Romney Debate Claims Can't Be Trusted." The Washington Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
Knowlton, Brian. "Axelrod Says Obama Will Review Tape of Debate." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .
"Obama, Romney Aides Lower Expectations for First Debate." USA Today. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. .