Presidential Debates Essay Research Paper Presidential DebatesPresidential

Presidential Debates Essay, Research Paper

Presidential Debates

Presidential debates are becoming a large part of a campaign plan. (“Where the voters are”) Who would think that such a short confrontation between the candidates would sway the vote of so many viewers. A presidential campaign could be won or lost from a single debate. The candidate must keep their cool and not go over the edge; they must be have a strong stand point on all of the topics, don’t avoid anything. When debates first started they did not have this much effect on the voters, but now that a debate can be heard over the internet and through the television voters don’t have to put forth any effort. All of the necessary points are usually covered in the debate. The points are not the only things that affect a voter, the appearance of the candidate, his tone of voice and his overall preciseness of his plans and ideas. Though the more modern debates can some what be planned, debates are still believed to be the best possible way to see the candidate in action and not just reading or saying what everyone wants to hear. The spin doctors, sponsors, television and media are playing a much larger part in presidential debates these days but all of this still shows what the importance of the debate is.

Spin Doctors

Spin doctors, isn’t that a strange name in politics and especially a presidential debate. No it is not the singing group called the Spin Doctors. In large debates a campaign will put together what they call a “spin squad”, this is a group of several spin doctors. These people are actually a very vital part of any presidential debate. All of the spin doctors today are very powerful in the government and also paid a small chunk of money for going out and preaching their parties’ candidate’s beliefs and plans. Spin doctors are the people whom are hired to perform the pre and post debate controversy among the media. The pre debate spin does not usually have any effect on the media. They are responsible for “accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative”. (Spin doctors) Which means they are trying to take anything that was good in the debate for the campaign and basically feed it to the media. They keep doing this until they believe that the point, which is good, has been gotten across to the media and the media now better understands what was actually being said. Instead of themselves putting their own opinion of what happen down they put down what the spin doctors are telling them. When eliminating the negative the spin doctors are trying to convince the media that what was actually said came out to be a miss understanding and after that they continue pounding the positive points. The place that the spin doctors work can sometimes be on the platform after the debate but is usually held in a large room. This room is complete chaos, after the debate media member’s rush to this place to be the first to interview the spin doctors. The spin doctors consider this place “Spin Alley”, and say it is a frantic dance between reporters and spin doctors as individual members of the press search for the unique angle, which no one else has covered. (Spin doctors) A bystander view said “ Spin alley is nuts! But I guess somehow this chaos helps inform the voters of what really happened in the debate.” (Marano 1996) Though the spinners are from the same party as their presidential candidate, they are never there to push for the party only the candidate. In the presidential debate of 1996 the debate went really well for Independent candidate Ross Perot, however the post debate action in spin alley really hurt him. For everyone one of Perot’s spinners the Democrats and Republicans had three to four spinners. This made it hard for the Perot’s spinners to convince the media of his excellent job and points in the debate.

Sponsors

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a well-known front group for both the Democratic and Republican parties; its involvement in corporate America is more obscure. (Carlin) The Commission on Presidential Debates was established in 1987 to make sure that debates are a permanent part of every general election. This way the voters would be getting the best possible opinion of a candidate. Its purpose is to undertake research and educational activities relating to presidential debates. The organization is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation, which sponsored all of the debates in 1988, 1992, and 1996. (“Commission on Presidential Debates”) The Commission on Presidential Debates released the criteria, which a candidate must receive to be invited, and the magic number is fifteen percent. Which means that a candidate must be supported by at least fifteen percent of the voters in five national network polls. The CPD has operated over the years by collecting millions of dollars from large corporations. In return these corporate sponsors receive several gifts and benefits such as: free debate tickets, receptions, and trinkets. But the two biggest benefits that a corporation receives is the ability to have access and talk to a presidential candidates campaign. This gives the corporation the ability to talk to the campaign about them providing money and support if they in return provide sponsorship of the corporation. This is a benefit to both sides one side receives millions of dollars that are put forth in the campaign for such things as advertising and