2008 Presidential Election Coverage
October 2008
Podcast
Listen to the acclaimed presidential historian Robert Dallek comment on the 2008 election. This month Dr. Dallek discusses the highs and lows of the Democratic and Republican conventions.
2008 Election Blog
Commentary by Robert Dallek, Ph.D.
October 2008
The First Debate
The results of the first debate in the presidential campaign between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama illustrate some significant things about voters in a hotly contested campaign.
With the economy in a perilous condition as a result of mortgage defaults that have imperiled leading U.S. banks, the debate focused on foreign and national security questions. The banking crisis and economic problems consumed some of the back and forth between the candidates. But it formed only a relatively small part of the exchanges.
The discussion became an exercise in verbal sparring. McCain trumpeted his many years of experience as a senator addressing foreign policy challenges to the United States and dismissing Obama as naïve and lacking competence to serve as commander-in chief. Obama attacked McCain as wrong on the war in Iraq and as an ally of incumbent president George W. Bush in failing to focus America’s military strength on combating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, which he called the central front in the war on terror.
The Reaction
The TV pundits and newspaper commentators generally agreed that neither man scored a knock out in emphasizing their opponent’s limitations. Most believed that neither of them outpaced the other in discussing either foreign or domestic policy issues.
Yet several polls suggested that Obama had bested McCain, if only by a small margin.
Comparing the Debate to 1960
What accounts for the survey results? I would argue that it’s the same thing that gave Senator John F. Kennedy a debate advantage over Vice President Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and contributed to Kennedy’s narrow victory in that election.
Kennedy’s success in the debate seems to have been a case of appearance and style over substance. After that debate, no one spoke about Kennedy’s superior knowledge or more compelling arguments in support of himself and his party. Rather, the emphasis was on the feeling that Kennedy looked more presidential than Nixon.
People who heard the debate on the radio, in fact, thought that Nixon had won. Those who saw it on television – the great majority of the audience – gave Kennedy the nod. Nixon had been ill and he looked gaunt and tired. Commentators joked: Nixon looked like a sinister chip monk; another described him as having been embalmed before he died.
By contrast, Kennedy, though he had a hidden history of significant health problems, looked robust and vital. It seemed to make all the difference in convincing viewers that Kennedy would make a better president. Of course, Nixon also had a history of alleged deviousness that may have added to the negative view of him.
What Have We Learned?
In the current debate, what may have hurt McCain was the impression of someone who was grumpy and dismissive toward Obama. He refused to make eye contact with Obama and came across to some observers as a bully who tried to intimidate his opponent. It reminded some commentators of Vice President Al Gore’s sigh during his first debate with George W. Bush in 2000, suggesting that that he had no patience with someone he viewed with disdain.
The moral of the 2000 and now 2008 debates is that the public, especially independent or undecided voters who are not strictly partisan, want the next president to be temperate and respectful toward his opponent. Voters undoubtedly want a chief executive who will be aggressive about protecting the nation’s interests in future dealings with foreign adversaries. But they also seem to want a president who is even tempered and capable of dignified dealings with opponents at home and abroad.
It may well be that the dignity of the highest office is something that voters insist upon from their president and a candidate who comes across as too aggressive or overly emotional is at a disadvantage with voters. However much we would like to believe that substance rather than image makes the difference in a presidential election, the truth seems to be that impressions or appearances are as important in determining who gets to the White House as the nuts and bolts of promised policies.
Critical Thinking Questions
- Form and Support Opinions Who do you believe won the first presidential debate of 2008? Use examples to support your position.
- Compare and Contrast Compare the similarities and differences between the Kennedy/Nixon debate of 1960 with the first McCain/Obama debate of 2008.
- Analyze What can McCain and Obama do to improve their reception in the next debate?