How Significant Are Presidential TV Debates In A Presidential Election Essay

Submitted By elliedavey
Words: 1193
Pages: 5
Open Document
How Significant are Presidential TV Debates in a Presidential Election?

Televised debates have become an important aspect of every presidential election. The first general election presidential debate was held on September 26, 1960, between Democratic nominee U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee. There are, however, suggestions that actually these TV debates hold absolutely no significance in terms of changing the outcome for the candidates. This cannot be said to be completely true though because there is substantial evidence to suggest that TV debates do change the overall outcome and affect the viewers, but it could be true to say that the media have an effect on what the voters vote and also how close the two candidates are running throughout the whole campaign.

Presidential debates offer the candidates a national platform and it also shows, to the voters, how the candidates deal with pressure and tough situations. One of the most famous TV debates was between Kennedy and Nixon, where it was astoundingly obvious to the viewers that Nixon was not well and healthy. Nixon had a pale complexion, unlike Kennedy’s Bronzed face, and fast-growing stubble as well as sweating under the hot studio lights, which in turn made the powder melt off his face, giving way to visible beads of perspiration. It didn’t help that Nixon had chosen a light grey suit for the occasion, which faded into the backdrop of the set and seemed to match his skin tone. Reacting to the vice president’s on-air appearance, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley reportedly said, “My God, they’ve embalmed him before he even died.” The following day, the Chicago Daily News ran the headline “Was Nixon Sabotaged by TV Makeup Artists?” Kennedy, on the other hand, had truly nailed it; he looked as if he had a natural glow and looked alert, which combined with the fact that he was making direct eye contact with the camera, clearly boosted his chance of winning the presidency. A month and a half after the TV debate, Americans turned out to vote in record numbers. As predicted, it was a close election, with Kennedy winning the popular vote 49.7 percent to 49.5 percent. Polls revealed that more than half of all voters had been influenced by the Great Debates, while 6 percent claimed that the debates alone had decided their choice. Whether or not the debates cost Nixon the presidency, they were a major turning point in the 1960 race.

Nevertheless, it can be argued that, rather than encouraging viewers to change their vote, the debates actually just solidified prior allegiances. Therefore many would argue that Kennedy would have won the election with or without the Great Debates. This can be supported with the recent 2012 Presidential election, Obama and Romney went head-to-head in a TV debate, but Romney came out on top in the debate for a number of reasons, one being that he knew he was going to be attacked for raising taxes on the middle class and favouring the wealthy, so he repeated over and over again that he would not raise taxes on the middle class and suggested it was Obama who would raise their taxes. On the day of their first face-off, October 3rd 2012, Obama had a 49 percent to 46 percent edge over Romney. Five days later, Obama’s lead had evaporated. Two weeks after the debate, Romney led by 4 points in the polls. So, even though Romney clearly won the debates that were televised, it made little difference to the overall outcome of the election and this is, arguably, down to various reasons; maybe the fact that, in October, 45 percent of voters thought the economy would improve from 2012- 2013, which was 18 points higher than in July and only 9 percent thought the economy would worsen. This suggests that the majority of voters were happy with Obama being re-elected as long as he changed some of his polices, which many thought he would do when voting in 2012, therefore concluding that these debates had a small
Show More

Related Documents: How Significant Are Presidential TV Debates In A Presidential Election Essay

Did the party Leader Debates, held for the first time in the UK during the 2010 election, matter? Essay

Did the party Leader Debates, held for the first time in the UK during the 2010 election, matter? The UK General Election of 2010 saw the introduction of a new and game-changing form of election campaign – the televised Leaders’ Debates. Following suit with what could be considered a necessity in all modern democracies (Coleman, 2000, p. xvii). The debates join a large pool of campaign arenas such as the age-old tradition of canvassing, newspapers, and, more recently, the internet with all of its…

Words 5717 - Pages 23

The Election Of 1960 Case Study

The Election of 1960: John F. Kennedy vs. Vice President Richard Nixon. This election is, arguably, one of the most important and influential elections of the last 100 years. This is due to the fact that it was the first election in which television played an enormous factor in the overall outcome. According to an article published by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (2011), only about 11 percent of American households owned a TV ten years prior to the historic election. However…

Words 678 - Pages 3

1960 Election Debates

history, it is customary to witness debates between Democratic and Republican nominees for presidential elections. One of the most significant moments that has unfolded during this time was the 1960 election when Senator John F. Kennedy, who was representing the Democrats and Vice President Richard M. Nixon, who represented the Republicans, went head to head in a live television broadcast. This debate occurred in a Chicago TV studio on September 12, 1960; later debates occurred in Washington, D.C. on…

Words 244 - Pages 1

Jan 2013 Essay

Prime Ministerial Power How the introduction of fixed-term Parliaments affects prime ministerial power? (5 marks) Introduction: Fixed Term Parliament Definition: The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 declare that parliamentary elections must be held every five years beginning in 2015 general election. This act was something the Liberal democrats have long endorsed. And something the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition finally agreed on after the 2010 general election. Point 1: Right Time- the…

Words 2496 - Pages 10

American Politics And Government: The President, Congress And Supreme Court

appoint the cabinet (who are not elected unlike most of the UK cabinet) judges and other important officials. He recommends laws to Congress. However the separation of the power and the checks and balances built into the system impose limits on presidential powers. The President and cabinet cannot be part of Congress and have to get Congress' approval to pass laws, approve the budget or declare war. Even when the President's party has a majority in one or both houses, Senators and Congressmen/women…

Words 2227 - Pages 9

same sex marrige Essay

Representatives of opponent 2.3.2 Representatives of supporters 2.3 people’s attitude to same sex marriage 3. The process of San Francisco leaders helping same sex marriage gain protection of constitution 4. Significance 4.1 Significance in national election 4.1.1 The impact on competition among political parties 4.1.2 The changes in structure of electors 5. Reference 1. Introduction In present world，many countries and regions passed same sex marriage successfully. For instance，the…

Words 3435 - Pages 14

Humor And Persuasion

an important role in today’s media driven society, it permeates every aspect of our lives, according to a May 2014 survey done by Nielson there are 116.3 million TV homes in the U.S. an increase from of 0.4 percent from the 2013-2014 estimate of 115.6 million. They also estimate that 296 million persons age 2 and older live in these TV homes, an increase of 0.5 percent from last year (Nielson.com). With statistics like those it is conceivable to believe the viewers of these programs are being subjected…

Words 2360 - Pages 10

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Pentadic

within rhetoric examines discourse through the lens of dramatism. This is a framework for analyzing societally significant rhetorical artifacts in a highly technical way. That is, it considers five key components that tie together contextual information to frame artifact analysis, looking into what was done: the act, the setting in which it occurred: the scene, who did it: the agent, how so: the agency, and why: the purpose (Burke…

Words 2962 - Pages 12

History Through 1777 Essay

here, details the five days that led up to the massacre. The "Pentagon Papers" were/are a compilation of material about the US involvement Indochina. The papers were compiled by the US State Department and the US military in the late 1960's showing how the US became involved in Vietnam (and in Laos and Cambodia) between 1945 and 1967. The New York Times obtained a copy of the top-secret report from one of the people compiling the report, Daniel Ellsberg and published it in 1971. The Twenty-sixth…

Words 9020 - Pages 37

media and migration Essay example

(McCombs, 2004; McQuail & Windahl, 1993) was based on their studies of the role of the media during the 1968, 1972, 1976 presidential elections in the USA. Basically, the theory argues that mass media news, both print and electronic, have a great influence on public opinion in terms of what the public considers important or salient in their society, by choosing what events to cover, how much space and prominence to give them and in what way to frame them. They defined mass media salience transfer as the…

Words 7173 - Pages 29