A Brief History of Debates by Max Watson, ‘14

Have you ever wondered how Presidential, and Vice-Presidential, debates work?  After reading this article, I’m sure that you’ll be election aficionados.  Today, all debates are televised, but they weren’t always like that.  The first televised debate was held in 1960 between Kennedy and Nixon.  The strangest part, however, was the peoples’ reactions.  While most people who listened on the radio, said Nixon had won the debate, people who had watched it televised, said that Kennedy had won.  In debates, its now a wide-known fact that a candidate’s appearance (whether they look relaxed and are smiling, or whether they scowl or appear nervous) can actually affect the ‘outcome’ of the debate.  

Originally, the presidential debates weren’t actually debates.  The first of these, in 1858, was between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, both running for the senate.  In fact, it began as Lincoln making jokes about Douglas during one of his speeches.  Later, the two came together for three hours to debate about slavery.  The idea of debating never caught on with the American public, until it was televised for the Kennedy-Nixon debate.  

Something I never knew about debates was how much negotiation goes into setting up debate ground rules.  Below are just some bullet points copied from this year’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU):

• Each debate shall begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
• The parties agree that they “will not (1) issue any challenge for additional debates, (2) appear at any other debate or adversarial forums except as agreed to by the parties, or (3) accept any television or radio air time offers that involve a debate format”
• Candidates aren’t allowed to cite anyone in the audience other than family members during debates.
• Candidates aren’t allowed to address questions to each other or ask the other candidate to take a pledge.
• Moderators are not allowed to ask “show of hands” questions.
• Even the room temperature is agreed upon in advance.