Assess each candidate’s performance in the first presidential debate. What debate strategies (noted in Denton et al Ch. 9) did they employ and how were they similar to/different from the strategies we discussed in class last week? How would you assess their performances? And, if you were a debate coach, what advice would you give each candidate going into their next meeting? Since there are no new class readings this week, use Denton et al Ch. 9 as your textbook reading and two articles that you find on your own as your sources (hence, no Blackboard reading). Your blog posts are due by 11:59 pm on Thursday, October 1.
Lille Gaeta
ReplyDeleteOverall, last night was a disaster. It was full of chaos, childish remarks, and was reminiscent of a school yard fight. But, I didn’t expect it to go any other way. Both candidate’s performances were subpar and unprofessional at times, but in terms of policy discussion, Biden edged out Trump.
In terms of pre-debate strategies, Biden seemed to have utilize many more than Trump did. For both candidates, public expectations were already pretty low so they did not need to do that. Both candidates determined a target audience. This was clear with Trump when he was talking about his Supreme Court nomination Amy Coney Barrett. Trump made this nomination to appeal to women, specifically white women in suburbs. He knows this group is who helped carry him to victory in 2016 and Trump is also aware that he is in danger of losing this group of voters. Talking about Barrett and mentioning being safe in suburbia is Trump’s way of targeting that audience. It was clear that he planned that out pre-debate. Something that was evident that Biden did was rehearse beforehand. Most times, Trump appeared to be talking on a whim, just whatever came to mind. It did not seem like he did much preparation at all. In 2016, Trump “did not hold any mock debates, continued his campaign rallies, and bragged that he did not need to prep for the debates” (Denton et.al. 233). This ultimately worked for him four years, so it will be interesting to see if it works for him again this year. Biden on the other hand, did appear to be prepped for the debate, maybe not as much as he should have though. In terms of policy Biden did have more substantial points, that is when he actually explained his policy ideas.
During the debate, both candidates worked on developing an image. Trump used the “Washington outsider” angle, much like he did against Clinton in 2016. When debating Clinton four years ago, Trump honed in on her 30 years of experience- and did the exact same thing to Biden last night. Trump “reprised the same line… against Mr. Biden… ‘In 47 months,’ Mr. Trump said… ‘I’ve done more than you’ve done in 47 years, Joe.’” (Goldmacher). Trump’s voters love that he’s considered an outsider, it’s what helped him win four years ago. Emphasizing this helps get his voters excited. Throughout the campaign, we’ve seen Biden branding himself has the “anti-Trump,” and target his campaign towards those who just don’t like Trump. Last night Biden continued to develop this image as the lesser of two evils.
Overall, both candidates’ did not perform well. Serious reform is needed for the next two debates in order to actually make these debates productive. According to the Washington Post, “The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Wednesday that it would ass ‘additional structure’ to the remaining faceoffs…” (Wagner et. Al.). The chaos that ensued last night makes it difficult to determine a true winner of the debate.
If I was a debate coach, I would make one key point to each candidate. To Trump, I would say that he needs to stop interrupting everyone. Whether it’s Biden or the moderator, its rude and unprofessional. To Biden, I would say to stop the snide remarks toward Trump. While they make great bits for Twitter, they might not be funny to the undecided, in-between voters, and Biden needs those votes.
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
ReplyDeleteGoldmacher, Shane. “Six Takeaways From the First Presidential Debate.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/debate- takeaways.html.
John Wagner, Amy B Wang. Election Live Updates: Trump and Biden Returning to Campaign Trail after Chaotic First Debate. 30 Sept. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/09/30/trump-biden-live-updates/.
Summer (Part 1)
ReplyDeletePrior to the commencement of the first presidential debate of 2020, I predicted that we should expect a theatrical presentation from both candidates: blatant record and policy attacks, scripted, heartfelt statements aimed at the American people, and desperate attempts to secure loyal constituencies. Applying Denton et al.’s scholarly knowledge on political debates to Tuesday night’s debate allows me to better understand how campaign strategies were implemented to ensure efficient, powerful performances for both President Trump and Vice President Biden; chapter 9 of Political Campaign Communication also allows me to see how and when both candidates acted out of accordance with their campaign teams, and how this may impact them for the remaining days of the election.
To begin, President Trump’s performance at the debate was expected, yet still shocking to many viewers. Trump went into the debate attempting to lower expectations of the public, claiming that Biden would win the debate because “he’s much more experienced,” and “he’s great” (Solender). This is a classic pre-debate strategy that is amplified in Chapter 9: “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” (Denton et al. 227) After the debate, it appears that the latter statement was the case for Joe Biden, rather than Donald Trump. Although he attempted to place public pressure on Biden to fluster him, Trump’s outlandish statements throughout the night landed him more condemnation than he likely anticipated. In particular, refusing to condemn white supremacy and making false claims about mail-in ballots generated more negative media attention than the strategies and talking points that would have benefitted him. Several of the debate strategies we suggested for Trump in class were not utilized during his performance, such as using his speaking time to connect to the overall campaign theme “Keeping America Great.” Meanwhile, he did attempt to apply the “knockout strategy” we suggested, specifically by criticizing Biden’s mental fitness, his 47-year record, and his support for the Iraq War in 2002. Then as well, Trump did highlight his own successes in criminal justice reform with the implementation of the First Step Act, while pointing out Biden’s contribution to the controversial 1994 crime bill. If Trump had stuck to more comparable policy-oriented talking points like this one rather than using aggression and petty tactics, my assessment of his debate performance would have been more optimistic.
Summer (Part 2)
DeleteAs I mentioned before, it appears that Biden’s ability to generally withstand Trump’s inflammatory behavior allowed his debate performance to be perceived as more of a victory than an outclass. With a few exceptions, Biden was able to maintain a scripted, mannerly attitude that was aimed to target several demographics. However, these exceptions are important for his campaign to examine and correct: at several points in the debate, Biden snapped back at Trump with comments like “Will you shut up, man?” or repeatedly calling him a clown. Although some American viewers may have been grateful for his impertinence, avoiding this type of rhetoric was a primary goal of our class debate strategy suggestions. We predicted that Trump’s behavior would throw Biden off of his game, and in these instances, we were correct. These missteps caused Biden to miss several opportunities to outshine Trump on particular debate topics like the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump’s agitation toward wearing masks. An NPR analysis piece suggests that Biden should have mentioned the spike in coronavirus cases after President Trump’s Tulsa rally in which attendees did not wear a mask or socially distance (Montanaro). Then as well, I believe that Biden should have mentioned the hypocritical stance of Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham who stated that a Supreme Court Justice should not be confirmed during an election year in 2016 during the topic of the newest Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. This would have shed a dark light on the Republican Party that could have potentially resonated in the minds of on-the-fence right-wing voters. However, despite his missed opportunities, I believe that Biden’s performance generally helped shape his image as a candidate. In the text, the authors discuss the strategy of “personification,” providing an example of candidates working “to be perceived as a nice guy, an efficient manager, or a strong leader” (Denton et al. 238). Biden has already received monikers from the public like “Uncle Joe,” displaying him as a kind, relatable family man. His tactic of looking directly into the camera and promising honesty and dedication to the American public was a clever and sincere strategy, while simultaneously delivering the message that Trump is the lying, heartless candidate of the two. This allows American voters to grasp onto the image that Biden was desperately attempting to paint for us: a nice, dedicated, and honest candidate that will keep in mind the best interest of the United States population.
Summer (Part 3)
DeleteFor the next debate, it is crucial that both the Trump and Biden campaigns work to mend the errors of their candidates. The Trump campaign must urge the President to soften his aggressive behavior and adopt a more respectful, sober persona to appeal to both unenthusiastic and undecided voters. Besides his most loyal base, the average American does not want to see a candidate refuse to abide to debate rules and spew disrespectful, often frightening comments at their opponent. For Biden, his campaign must motivate him to keep his public image in mind when reacting to the President’s behavior. Biden is fortunate in the fact that he is able to make snarky comments and still present himself as a kind-hearted, gentle individual, but this may not always remain as the case. Biden must remain composed and anecdotal in his performance and only speak on statistics, data and policy when he has facts at hand to back up his claims. This will allow him to avoid Trump’s attempts at discrediting him and instead appear as knowledgeable and confident. If both campaigns work tirelessly to improve the performances of their candidates, I predict that the next debate will be more structured, informative and beneficial to both Trump and Biden.
Works Cited
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Montanaro, Domenico. “Trump Derails 1st Presidential Debate With Biden, And 5 Other Takeaways.” NPR, NPR, 30 Sept. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918500976/trump-derails-first-presidential-debate-with-biden-and-5-other-takeaways.
Solender, Andrew. “Trump Predicts Biden Will Win Debates In Last-Minute Effort To Lower Expectations.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 Sept. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/09/21/trump-predicts-biden-will-win-debates-in-last-minute-effort-to-lower-expectations/.
Shannon Flaherty
ReplyDeleteThe debate was definitely interesting. Jake Tapper said it best in “That was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck” (Emmrich). The two candidates strayed mostly from what strategies were laid out for them and chose rather to engage in school yard chatter. I do think that Biden was able to use one strategy of developing an image (Denton) in the way he was vulnerable and raw both while looking directly into the camera. Biden appealed to the emotion of the viewer. Like we suggested in class, it appears Biden was able to prepare for his public speaking. His words were methodical and powerful, while he did slip up and stutter several times throughout the debate I believe our class would be impressed that he didn’t get too flustered under the confrontational attacks Trump was throwing his way. While we suggested Biden to avoid sensitive topics, I think that he handled the situation about his son in the best way possible. Biden was able to make a key moment out of Trump’s attack, which did not make Trump look good in any way. As we suggested for Trump to try a knock-out strategy of attacking Biden, I think it backfired in the low blows on Biden’s sons. Trump however did appear knowledgeable on what he was talking about, and utilized tactics of criticizing Biden’s 47 years in government. It appears he took our advice for actually preparing for the debate with Christie according to ABC coverage. He did not choose to swing anything back into his theme of keeping America great, and absolutely avoided our suggestion addressing concerns about racial injustice. Rather the president chose to not denounce white supremacy at all- but instead told the Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by” (Emmrich).
Flaherty cont.
DeleteI would assess both candidates' performances as mediocre. While Biden’s body language towards the camera was beneficial for him directly addressing the American people, he did not come across as classy in telling Trump to shut up, by calling him a clown, and by calling him the “worst president America has ever had” (Emmrich). While both did a good job appealing to different voting blocs, I think Ohians would be split. Biden referred to having brought back GM, and Trump is the one who brought back football so it’s safe so say it might be a toss up in that area. For the future, Trump needs to not ignore the moderator’s pleas for him to stop interrupting. From the very first question the president had to be asked to let the moderator finish his question so that he could answer it. Trump should also avoid mentioning the vaccine being weeks away and claiming that Biden’s team is trying to make it political. Biden needs to prepare better to be interrupted and to handle it better without losing track of his thoughts. Trump was able to knock Biden off his game and Biden wasn’t able to have a “winning performance” to actually stand up Trump. Frank Luntz said it best with “the candidates behaved as though they didn’t deserve to be president” (Pettypiece). Both need to cut the snide comments, and bickering (almost borderline bullying) for next debate and shape up to show the American people they are mature adults fit to be running a country.
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9 th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Emmrich, Stuart. “Last Night's Presidential Debate Was a 'Shitshow' and a 'Train Wreck.' Can We Survive Two More Like This?” Vogue, www.vogue.com/article/presidential-debate-shitshow-donald-trump-joe-biden-chris-wallace.
Pettypiece, Shannon, et al. “Trumpworld 'Worried' amid Debate Performance Fallout.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 30 Sept. 2020, www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trumpworld-worried-amid-debate-performance-fallout-n1241596.
Jailynn Caraballo
ReplyDeleteThis first presidential debate was very interesting. A lot happened that I personally expected to happen, and a lot happened that I don’t think anyone could have predicted. We are truly living in an interesting and very unique political time. Trump did a great job at keeping Biden generally distracted and flustered, a strategy he has used many times and seems to do very well for him. Biden did a great job at stating more facts and making himself seem knowledgeable while directly looking at the camera and addressing the American people. The book says that, “If one contestant is vastly brighter, more fluent, more poised, more knowledgeable, and better prepared, no real debate can take place” (Denton et a, 2020, p. 220). I find this super interesting. With the two candidates we are presented with in this election, there isn’t one that seems vastly better at debating than the other. Unfortunately, both Biden and Trump have their own flaws and weaknesses.
Trump did something that I think was very important for his campaign. He made sure to comment many times about Biden’s “47 years” in public office and how “nothing had been done” all throughout that time. This strategy was effective in undercutting Biden and making him seem weak in terms of policy and planning. It always was a great way to get Biden’s voters to second guess their decision in voting for him. Trump has a skill for demanding space, and he did a great job at seeming like the more dominant opponent. Biden also did some things that I think will be very important for his campaign. He made sure to discredit every “fact” Trump brought up throughout the course of the night. Since it is heavily stated in the media that Trump lies often and does not use real data when he speaks, this was a great way of making Trump’s voters second guess him. Biden also brought up real statistics on several occasions. This made Biden seem like the most versed opponent of the night. Both of their performances are very similar to what we spoke about in class last week.
The American people could not have predicted how many wrong statements both of the candidates would make. During the debate, Trump said to Biden, “I don’t think you have any law enforcement endorsements”. Biden’s campaign was very quick to correct this error. “The Biden campaign shared a list of over 190 current or former law enforcement officials who back him.” (Georgia Department of Transportation, 2020 July 19). During the debate Biden said Trump’s Supreme Court nominee has “written… that she thinks the Affordable Care Act is not constitutional.” Trump's campaign says, “Not quite, though she faulted a 2012 opinion upholding the law” (FactCheck.org, 2020 September 30).
If I were a debate coach for Trump's campaign, I would tell him to slow down when he speaks and to make sure he is respectful to the moderator. I would be afraid that the American voters would find it incredibly frustrating to follow along with what is being said if Trump continuously interrupts. If I were a debate coach for Biden's campaign, I would tell him to make sure he is facing Trump when he speaks and to make sure he makes direct eye contact. I would be afraid that the American voters would see this as weak and indecisive.
All in all, I think both of their performances were to be expected. I don’t think anyone is incredibly thrilled with the events of the night but hey, that’s politics.
Works Cited
DeleteDenton, R. E., Trent, J. S., & Friedenberg, R. V. (2020). Political campaign communication: Principles and practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
FactCheck.org. (2020, September 30). FactChecking the First Trump-Biden Debate. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/factchecking-the-first-trump-biden-debate/
2, B., 28, D., Georgia Department of Transportation stated on July 19, Republican National Committeestated on June 5, 29, D., 29, T., . . . 26, F. (n.d.). PolitiFact - Fact-checking the first 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/30/fact-checking-first-2020-presidential-debate-joe-b/
Harriet Rice
ReplyDeleteGoing into the first presidential debate Trump was predicted to win the debate. As discussed in my last blog post, Biden was nervous he was going to take the bait from Trump. After watching the first debate I believe both candidates had their strengths and weaknesses. The first noticeable characteristic of the debate was the constant interruptions. In my opinion more from Trump than Biden. Biden style was noted as he made strong connections to viewers as he frequently looked directly into the camera and said “We” and “American People”. Saying this I think that Biden chose the debate strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. He frequently addressed the middle and working-class throughout his answers which reflect his concern for individuals that Trump has been known to overlook. He also did a great job in connecting to audience members specifically those that lost family members to COVID-19. You felt his grief and support through his answers.
Meanwhile, Trump continued to make fun of Biden and his mask-wearing as he said he wears “the biggest mask I’ve ever seen” (O’Kane). Trump also did not hold back when interrupting Biden with personal matters concerning his son. This had no relevance to the topic being discussed and delayed and confused the debate for viewers. Trump seemed to take the “developing an image” theme for his debate. As the standing President, he may feel as though he just has to uphold his image to gain voters. He seemed to be using the “activist leadership style” (Denton 236) which is a style that leaders use to consistently refer to their actions and their effect on events (Denton 236). Trump was not shy in letting the world know that he has done a great job with the coronavirus or in his words the “China virus”. He also added that Biden would have done an awful job in handling this type of situation. Trump slammed Biden for wanting to shut down the country however according to PolitiFact Biden said in a CBS News interview “I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives.” “I would shut it down. I would listen to scientists” (PolitiFact). Through this fact-checker, we see that Trump is trying to scare voters into thinking Biden wants the worst for us.
It was evident that the continuous interruptions threw Biden off and he would often make remarks to Trump such as “will you shut up man” and continues to call Trump “a liar”, “clown” and “the worst president that America has ever had”(O’Kane). Although I don’t think this was the best idea. Calling Trump names only indicates that Biden can also be labeled as a bully which he does not want. If I was a debate coach the advice, I would tell Biden to stay focused. Although the remarks Trump makes may be personal it is crucial not to take the bait because that is what Trump wants. Let Trump show voters who he is. Instead of feeding into them just continue talking about your plan if elected president. Show voters why you are a perfect fit for this position and give the exact plan. In this first debate, it was difficult to follow what Biden’s plan was. He kept talking about it but not explaining it to viewers. Many people watch these debates looking for answers/plans not to watch a personal fight between candidates. CNN reporter Chris Cillizza said, “it was, without a question the worst debate I have ever covered in my two decades of doing this job” (Cillizza). Following this, the advice that I would give Trump is to allow fair time to Biden and also to respect the commentator. It was evident that Trump did not respect the commentator as he would frequently talk over Wallace and ignore him when he said time was up. This may lead voters to conclude that the president can’t even follow simple tasks. It may reflect poorly on his character which is not what he needs as the election approaches.
Work cited
DeleteCillizza, C. (2020, September 30). Analysis: Hits and misses from the first Trump-Biden debate. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/29/politics/first-presidential-debate-hits-and-misses/index.html
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Greenberg, J., Jacobson, L., Sherman, A., Putterman, S., Valverde, M., McCarthy, B., . . . Huetteman, E. (n.d.). PolitiFact - Fact-checking the first 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/30/fact-checking-first-2020-presidential-debate-joe-b/
O'Kane, C. (2020, September 30). "Shut up, man": First debate between Biden and Trump devolves into personal jabs. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-you-shut-up-man-trump-biden-first-debate-personal-jabs/
More than 73 million people watched the first debate between President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. (Stelter, 2020). These viewers were party to one of the most chaotic and heated political travesties recalled in living history. As anticipated, the issues were overshadowed by interruptions, insinuations and insults setting an unsettling tone for not only the future debates, but the future of democracy. While Trump and Biden both had their shining moments throughout the debate, Trump’s audacious demeaner cast an ominous cloud over his hopes for re-election and much needed improvement on his future strategies.
ReplyDeleteWith all that is going on in the world today, it is hard to imagine that verbal lashings would be a top priority for either candidate. Trump has definitely developed an image as a brash and unpredictable leader which has contributed to his popularity and served him well for the last 3 ½ years. However, this persona went into overdrive during the debate and he steamrolled his way through “with constant interruptions and attempts to throw Biden off-balance”. (Kapur, 2020). One particular moment that sticks out is Trumps attack on Biden’s son, Hunter, when he referenced Hunter’s issues with substance abuse. If Trump was hoping to alienate a bloc of voters, he accomplished his goal fully with this insensitive comment as millions of Americans are personally afflicted or know someone who struggles with substance use disorder. Biden, personified his role as the nice, “regular Joe”, family man, by staring directly into camera and stating how proud he is of his son for conquering his demons, not only displaying empathy and compassion for his child, but appealing to the masses of people who deal with this life changing battle on a daily basis. Biden’s efforts to connect with the American voters remained consistent throughout the debate often focusing on the monitor rather than Trump, drawing the public in with poise and authenticity.
While the debate covered a plethora of issues including the pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court justice election, and racial injustice, to name a few, there was very little said regarding a follow up plan from either party. “Political debates typically draw the largest audiences of any single communicative event of the campaign” (Denton, 230) so this was a concrete opportunity for both candidates to solidify their target audiences vote as well as convince the undecided voter to choose a party. Trump struggled to stick to an overall theme and appeared scattered in his delivery while Biden danced around directly answering questions, surely leaving their target audiences unsatisfied. Trump, however, hit the bullseye with a specific demographic when refusing to denounce white supremacy and telling the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group, to “stand back and stand by”. Subsequently, Trump undoubtedly outraged the minority vote which could be pivotal in specific swing states, such as Florida where this statement is “creating a sense of urgency and outrage that could work in Biden’s favor”. (Dixon, 2020).
In taking a final assessment of both candidate’s performances, each had their inaccuracies, although Biden far less, according to CBS news and inadequacies as reflected in the New York Post article “Who Won the First Debate? Experts grade the Trump-Biden Mess”. In future debates, it would be beneficial for Trump to practice the spiritual principle of humility, state facts and refrain from making promises such as having a vaccine to the virus within weeks. Biden should continue to prepare and rehearse his answers as to not fumble when frustrated and not engage when Trump tries to get a rise out of him. Both need to have solid follow through plans to their propositions and stick to the issues at hand that are rattling America rather than battle each other. America deserves that much.
DeleteWorks Cited
Dixon, Matt. "Trump’s Proud Boy moment sparks Black outrage in Florida." 30 September 2020. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/09/30/trumps-proud-boy-moment-sparks-black-outrage-in-florida-1319240. website. 30 September 2020.
Hicks, Nolan. "Who won the first presidential debate? Experts grade Trump-Biden mess." 29 September 2020. https://nypost.com/2020/09/29/who-won-the-presidential-debate-experts-grade-trump-biden-mess/. website. 30 September 2020.
Kapur, Sahil. "4 debate takeaways from last night's Trump-Biden face-off." September 29 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/four-takeaways-first-trump-biden-debate-n1241527. website. September 30 2020.
News, CBS. "First presidential debate: Fact-checking Trump and Biden on mail ballots, the economy, COVID and more." 30 September 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/first-presidential-debate-fact-check-trump-biden/. 2020. 30 September 2020.
Robert E. Denton, Jr., Judith S. Trent, Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication Principles & Practices, 9th Edition . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. Kindle.
Stelter, Brian. "Trump-Biden Clash was watched by at least 73 million viewers." 30 September 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/media/first-presidential-debate-tv-ratings/index.html. website. 2020 September 2020.
Tim Powers
ReplyDeleteThe first presidential debate of the 2020 election was certainly an interesting one for sure. I knew the debate was not going to be a healthy one for either candidate, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. The first debate was full of interruptions from Trump, sparring with the moderator, Chris Wallace, and extremely puzzling and concerning moments. Largely I feel that neither candidate won the night. However, if I had to say that one did win, I would say Biden because he was able to showcase a little of his plans, however small that was.
I feel that both candidates employed the same debate strategy last night, however in different ways. Both Trump and Biden employed the debate strategy of relating issues to an overall theme. Both candidates wanted to showcase the ineffectiveness of their opponent. Biden wanted to show how Trump has significantly messed up our nation in his last 4 years as president, while Trump wanted to show that Biden was unfit and weak for presidential office. Relating issues to an overall theme includes presenting “their overall theme in the introductory statement if the opportunity to make such a statement is allowed in the debate format being used. Then they will reinforce it with answers to as many specific questions as possible” (Denton, 234). Biden bringing up Trump’s inability to lead during the COVID-19 crisis, economically, the racial unrest and climate change. Biden consistently brough up Trumps failures as president on these fronts. While Trump completed this strategy by constantly interrupting Biden in each of his answers. This caused Biden to get frustrated and flustered, resulting in Biden struggling to answer questions. In addition, this resulted in statements like, “Will you shut up man.” Trump clearly wanted to get a rise out of Biden and show his inability to deal with difficult people. This was different to what we discussed last week because a lot of us said that the candidates needed to develop an image and neither did that with this debate. However, it was also similar because many also said that the candidates were going to need to utilize an overall theme during the debate.
I felt that neither candidate performed well. Trump was consistently interrupting Biden and sparring with Wallace. In addition, he said some horrible and scary things about Biden’s son, not condemning white supremacy as well as racist remarks about COVID-19. But I feel the most interesting and scary moment from Trump during the debate was during the section regarding election integrity, “Asked directly whether he will tell his voters not to engage in any sort of violence or “civil unrest” while the votes are being counted on and beyond November 3, the President of the United States not only refused to do so but also reiterated his call to his supporters to go to polling places and “watch” people casting votes” (Cillizza). This is a very scary statement for any politician to say. Biden also did not perform well because he was flustered and frustrated from Trump’s interruptions. However, when Trump would not interrupt him, Biden’s answers went well and were even powerful. In addition, Biden refused to answer some questions, “Biden also created problems for himself by evading simple questions. Why not admit or deny that he wouldn’t urge the senate to end the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court?” (Rove). Biden should have been able to give simple and concise answers to each question. If I were a debate coach, I would give Trump the advice of let others speak too. The debate was too much of Trump interrupting Biden and not speaking about his own plans. He mainly talked about other people and his own record instead of the future. As for Biden I would give him the advice of being bolder. Biden cannot just react to Trump’s interruptions and statements; he needs to put an end to them and create a powerful moment for himself.
Works Cited:
DeleteCillizza, C. (2020, September 30). Analysis: Donald Trump's worst moment of the 1st debate (that you probably missed). Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/polls-donald-trump-election-first-debate/index.html
Denton Jr., Robert E., et al. “Political Campaign Communication: Principals & Practices.” Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. Pp. 234.
Rove, K. (2020, September 30). Opinion | This Was the Debate From Hell. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-was-the-debate-from-hell-11601491245
It’s weird, it seems as if Donald Trump’s campaign staff got ahold of my blog post because he seemed to employ my strategy almost exactly and that was my “total knockout strategy.” I’d said in last week’s blog post that “I would instead go in for the total knockout. What that means to me is I would highlight my opponent’s insecurities, mainly his mental fragility.” In hindsight seeing it all play out I wish he didn’t. This debate was an embarrassment to him, our democracy, and the American people. This strategy did not get the results I anticipated as Joe Biden was poised and on his game. The strategy instead backfired on Trump as it made him look not only extremely unpresidential but just outright mean, “At several intervals, the president descended into what can only be described as merciless bullying.” (Hilditch) I’d said in last week’s blog post “if I were Donald Trump I would make it my mission from the second I step on the the stage to completely dominate the debate not only through being on the offensive but I would do so by thwarting Biden off every single talking point he is on.” Trump seemed to do exactly that and not only did Biden stand his ground and win over some undecided moderate voters by sticking to policy but Trump lost some conservative voters who liked Biden’s America first appeal and detest Trump’s rhetoric. In the conclusion of out textbook Denton leaves off by stating “debates seem to contribute to the public’s confidence in government institutions and leaders.” (Denton) I believe after last night’s debate he would retract that statement. The debate was shocking and I like most people are still processing everything but the most jaw-dropping moment of the debate was when Trump was asked to disavow white supremacy and instead he told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by. When I heard that I literally spit out my drink. I don’t know if he meant to say that but I’ve been toiling with this since it happened and there is no way to rationalize it. Firstly, why bring them into this? The question was about white supremacy and the Proud Boys have nothing to do with white identity. They’re a fringe meninist organization that evolved into an Antifa opposition group but in no way do they advocate for white supremacy or white nationalism, so to bring them into it and then to tell them to “stand by” is insane to me. The Proud Boys are more against masturbation, third-wave feminism, and Antifa than they are in any way having to deal with white Identity as their founding principle is “If you want to be a true member of their club, you’re required to give up masturbation.” All in all, Trump should stick to Jobs, exposing Biden on platform inconsistencies, and preach more to American ideals than white identity politics.
ReplyDeleteExcerpt From: Robert E. Denton, Jr., Judith S. Trent & Robert V. Friedenberg. “Political Campaign Communication.” iBooks. https://books.apple.com/us/book/political-campaign-communication/id1468574165
DeleteHilditch, C. (2020, September 30). The First Debate Showed Why Biden Will Win. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-first-debate-showed-why-biden-will-win/
Alptraum, L. (2018, October 19). Why Are The Proud Boys So Obsessed With Not Masturbating? Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://medium.com/s/story/why-are-the-proud-boys-so-obsessed-with-masturbation-c9932364ebe2
Brianna Mejia 1/2
ReplyDeleteDuring the 2020 presidential debates, I found Trump’s performance to be somewhat different than what we predicted in class. In “Political Campaign Communication” written by Denton et al, Denton mentions a prominent debate strategy as relating issues to overall themes (Denton et al, 233). Trump had many opportunities to relate to his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” or even “Keep America Great” but did not mention these once. To me, this is a huge missed opportunity. Not only that, but Trump did not listen to his advisors when they told him that he needed to practice more for these debates, and I think his unpreparedness showed. As Denton suggests, practicing responses to common questions is a great way to have a prewritten script in your head on debate night (Denton et al, 234). Trump looked unprepared as he constantly interrupted the moderator, violated the rules of the debate, and diverted his answers so that he did not answer the question. Overall, I think that Trump’s performance was not strong, and he had glaring mistakes such as not denouncing white supremacy when he was asked to, bringing up Biden’s son’s drug addiction, and having vague climate change plans.
Biden, on the other hand, did not do as great as many hoped he would. The speed and tenacity at which he usually speaks have not changed and it made him seem like he was not passionate about a lot of the issues he spoke about. However, according to the article “'Unhinged,' 'Predictable': What Undecided Debate Watchers Thought Of Candidates” by Sam Gringlas, Biden’s reserved nature made him seem “compassionate” “coherent” and “rehearsed” to undecided voters, which may have given him a favorable image over Trump. Biden did do a good job of relating issues back to themes, as we predicted that he would. He related a lot of the issues happening in America today back to “Trump’s America”, blaming the current administration and accusing them of being more divisive. You can also tell that Biden was very rehearsed and had certain anecdotes and emotional appeals ready to fit into any answer. These emotional appeals were a strength of Biden’s throughout the night so following Denton’s debate strategies paid off for Biden.
I think that both candidates needed more practice and advising when it came to the facts that they decided to use. Fact-checking the debate was very common and multiple major news outlets have analyzed the debate for inaccuracies. According to The New York Times article “Fact-Checking the First 2020 Presidential Debate”, Trump lied about the number of people with preexisting conditions and gave misleading information on climate change policies as well as many exaggerations. Biden did his fair share of exaggerations and unbacked claims which proves that both candidates need to get their facts straight and their numbers memorized. This only comes with more debate practice.
Brianna Mejia 2/2
DeleteOverall, I think that the debate did not do much for either candidate. One undecided voter from the NPR article written by Gringlas said "All Biden had to do was convince me that he has policies that are gonna replace Trump when he gets in office, and he hasn't convinced me of that." It is obvious that this debate was not filled with a lot of substance. If I were the debate coach for both candidates, I would make glaring changes to their strategies. For Trump, I would start with first enforcing the debate rules. When he breaks the rules and yells at the moderator, it makes him seem arrogant and childish. I would also advise him to answer questions more directly, especially when it is a yes or no question that questions his character. Relating everything back to a common theme would help him centralize his message as well. For Biden, I think that he needs to be less flustered when he gets interrupted. He needs to keep his calm and not stoop down to Trump’s level by calling him a “clown” or telling him to “shut up man”. This will prove that he is the more mature candidate that does not get flustered in situations like these. I would also advise him to describe his plans more. He often said that he has plans to replace what Trump has done but rarely ever expanded on them.
Sources
Davenport, Coral. “Fact-Checking the First 2020 Presidential Debate.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/live/2020/09/29/us/debate-fact-check.
Denton, Robert E., Jr.. Political Campaign Communication (Communication, Media, and Politics) (p. 233-234). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Gringlas, Sam. 'Unhinged,' 'Predictable': What Undecided Debate Watchers Thought Of Candidates. 30 Sept. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918677460/only-a-few-undecided-voters-remain-did-the-debate-help-anyone-decide.
Erin Fennell
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the debate on Tuesday night, I would say it resembled what I, and many others, expected. It was more of a back and forth attack from both sides, and not much content or clear answers from either. The way these two debated seemed very unorganized and didn't seem like either of them followed a clear debate strategy for the most part. From last week's reading, I thought Trump was going to stick with his strategy of relating all of his ideas to the overall theme (Denton Et al 334) of “Make America Great”. I did not see that this time and he did not seem to follow this overarching theme strategy. Trump was also unable to use the strategy of “lowering expectations” (Denton Et al 227) since many news stations pegged him as the stronger debater and the one to beat. Biden however was able to use the strategy of lowering the public's expectation because of this, and it worked in the beginning. Biden came out calm and collected and spoke much more eloquent than the media had predicted he would. This worked in his favor until around twenty minutes in when Trump began to fluster him and Biden began to speak often and stutter his answers, making himself look unsure of his own opinions. I believe this was Trump's main strategy through the whole debate. He intended to interrupt and fluster Biden hoping he would discredit himself and make himself look bad or unprepared. While, in my opinion, it did not seem like either candidate followed a set debate strategy, both did stick with giving answers their target demographic would agree with and said what they knew would help gain favor from their voting blocs. Biden focused on answers that would favor women and minority groups and Trump centered his responses around military, law and order, and the middle class. They both used a strategy of sticking with their created image and that will help both of them secure the votes they desire.
According to an article by Time 100, “The candidates performed exactly as pundits (and probably most laypeople) predicted. President Trump attacked and interrupted, showing little regard for facts… Biden started off a bit shaky, as usual. But he recovered quickly enough, relaxing into his standard persona: the descent, reasonable, compassionate guy offended by Trump’s lack of decorum and put off by radicalism of all stripes” (Berman). While this article is seemingly biased toward Biden, it does give a decent description of each candidate's performance. If I were a debate coach, I would suggest that Trump be a little more respectful and take this opportunity more seriously; focusing on sharing his plans rather than making petty remarks about his opponent. And I would suggest that Biden stay calm and practice all types of responses so that he looks more confident in his plans, as well as be clearer on his actual plans because up until the end of the debate, any plan Biden had for any topic was very general. I would also suggest to both to focus more on answering the question, then giving jabs at one another. Another article by PolitiFact sums up the election as “President Donald Trump’s constant interruptions of both Democratic nominee Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace threw the first presidential debate of 2020 into a state of confusion. Biden began interrupting as well as the two candidates clashed over the coronavirus crisis, racial justice protests, the economy and Trump’s taxes” (PolitiFact Staff). The election was taken over by both candidates' inability to act mature and allow the questions to be asked and answered. People watch these debates to learn about each candidate and their plans, and as an undecided voter, I can say that Tuesday night’s debate did not do much to sway me in either direction.
Work cited
DeleteBerman, Judy. "Just Cancel the Last Two Debates. America Has Suffered Enough." Time 100, Time, 30 Sept. 2020, time.com/5894500/presidential-debate-review/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020.
Denton, Robert E. "Debates in Political Campaigns." Political Campaign Communication, by Robert E. Denton et al., 9th ed., pp. 227-36.
PolitiFact Staff. "Fact-checking the first 2020 presidential debate, Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump." PolitiFact, Poynter, 29 Sept. 2020, www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/30/fact-checking-first-2020-presidential-debate-joe-b/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2020.
Samantha Mesbah
ReplyDeleteBlog #5- Post-Debate Analysis
The presidential debates allow the American voters to understand different policies and gain a sense of clarity of which candidate they see most fit to run the nation. These debates are supposed to inform and educate those who might not be as politically involved as others. It is a chance for both candidates to appeal to different groups of people and address the issues they see most important. It is time for the candidates to identify a plan to fix and develop the nation if they are elected to take office. However, Tuesday night we did not see a debate of such substance and information. According to NPR, the debate was described as, “If this was supposed to be a boxing match, it instead turned into President Trump jumping on the ropes, refusing to come down, the referee trying to coax him off, and Joe Biden standing in the middle of the ring with his gloves on and a confused look on his face.” (Montanaro) It is clear to the media, both candidates, their staff, and the general public that this debate was a disaster.
In “Political Campaign Communication”, Denton exclaims different strategies that candidates should use to have the most successful outcome. One strategy he talks about is the idea of relating issues to an overall theme. (Denton et al, 233) I was personally surprised when Trump did not use this strategy to his advantage. In 2016, the Trump campaign thrived on the idea of “Make America Great Again.” Many voters were able to appeal to this idea as all of his policies and aspirations tied back into this theme. I was surprised to not hear the mention of “Keep America Great” once from Trump during the first debate.
While Trump did not give his best performance, it was also adamant that Biden could have been viewed as weak during the debate. An article from the New York Times states, “The former vice president alternated between smiling and shaking his head in bemusement and firing off attacks of his own as Mr. Trump kept interrupting.” (Martin and Burns) Trump had consistently attacked Biden and made multiple accusations of his inability to be a successful president. While Biden would attack back, the two candidates constantly stepped away from policy to make personal attacks on each other’s past, families, and other media scandals. The debate was a time to focus on present-day issues such as COVID19, racial injustice, and the economy, yet the candidates often rerouted their conversations.
One thing I noticed was Trump constantly reminding the audience that Biden has been involved in American politics for 47 years. Trump claimed, “In 47 months I’ve done more than you have in 47 years.” (Martin and Burns) Trump kept using this tactic to exclaim the idea that Biden has had ample time to make a difference in America, and has yet to do so.
I believe one of the biggest issues with the debate was the inability of both candidates to stay quiet when it was not their turn to speak. According to CBS News, “One key change it plans to implement: Cutting off the microphones of President Trump and Joe Biden if they break the rules, according to a source familiar with the commission's deliberations. The plans have not been finalized and the commission is still considering how it would carry out the plan.” (Quinn and O’Donnell) This strategy from the debates commission would ensure that both candidates got their chance to make a statement, without comment or interruption from the other. Both Trump and Biden were unprofessional in the last debate and this extreme major from the debates commission might be essential in the hope for a more productive debate.
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
DeleteMontanaro, Domenico. “Trump Derails 1st Presidential Debate With Biden, And 5 Other Takeaways.” NPR, NPR, 30 Sept. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918500976/trump-derails-first-presidential-debate-with-biden-and-5-other-takeaways.
Martin, Jonathan., Burns, Alexnader. “With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate with Biden.” NYTimes, 29 Sept. 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/politics/trump-biden-debate.html
Quinn, Melissa. O’Donnell, Norah. “Debates commission plans to cut off mics if Trump or Biden break rules.” CBS News, 1 Oct. 2020 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/presidential-debates-rules-changes-cutting-microphones/
I think the first debates were anything but presidential. Both candidates conducted themselves in an unprofessional manner when discussing important topics and the clear lack of organization from both candidates was clear. I initially watched the debates on CBS and watched post coverage on that channel which was basically all the commentators saying how unimpressed and shocked they were about the debates. Personally, I was counting down the minutes until I could turn off the TV because it was quite overwhelming to watch them talk over each other.
ReplyDeleteI’m not really sure the approach each candidate took for these debates. In a past blog post, I discussed how it would beneficial if Trump practiced before the debates and tried to present a more organized front. For what I watched on Tuesday, it didn’t appear as though Trump practiced enough for the debates because many of his points were vague and he was more concerned with attacking “extreme leftists” and Biden. He even went as low as attacking Biden’s son and calling him a loser. This was used later by Biden in a poignant tweet of a picture of him and his son that said, “Hunter Biden is not a loser.”
When Trump was asked to condemn white supremacists, he gave a vague answer which was very harmful for the president’s image. This debate was crucial for the president to show a more active leadership role, especially in terms of hot topics like white supremacist groups. As explained by Denton, “In a debate, activists consistently refer to their actions, their initiatives, and their effect on events. Passive leaders are cautious. They do not speak of their initiatives, but rather portray themselves as reacting to events”(236). I think that Trump did try to employ a more activist approach because there were a few times he tried to reference what he’s done in office that has benefited people, but he was more passive in the way he would talk about policy or events. He focused on how he reacted to certain events and tended to stray away from discussing certain future initiatives.
Writers at Politico Magazine, analyzed the debates and one interesting point they brought up was “Biden was, to whatever degree possible, the calm to Trump’s chaos.” Trump clearly was unorganized and, in the end, contributed to a lot of the disorder Tuesday night. But when I went back to watch the very beginning of the debates after I watched post-debate coverage on Fox News and CNN, I noticed that Biden was actually the first to interrupt in the entire debate. Now, it’s not uncommon for candidates to interrupt each other on occasion during debates, but after thinking more about it, I wonder if there is a chance Biden was subtly trying to provoke Trump because he knew Trump would have trouble restraining himself from interrupting and saying outrageous things. This, in turn, led the Commission on Presidential Debates to say on Wednesday that it would make changes to the format of this year’s remaining debates due to the constant interruptions.
The last thing I want to discuss is how both candidates approached voting this year. Joe Biden spent his time providing resources and encouraging the American people to vote any way that they could. He looked directly at the camera during his monologue which made him more approachable than intimidating. Trump on the other hand talked about election fraud and used what I believe are fear mongering tactics that writers at The New York Times are afraid were part of laying the groundwork to delegitimize the election.
DeleteI would suggest that both candidates prepare more for the next debate and remove any personal, “below the belt” attacks on each other. I would like to see each candidate talk about policy, what they have each done for this country and what they plan on doing. Trump should specifically practice in a similar atmosphere of the next debates and bring a more comprehensive list to the table of what he will do in the next four years. He should practice his reactions and try to not interrupt as much as he did during the last debate. Overall, I think both candidates should practice professionalism in the next debates so the American people can get a better idea of who they are voting for.
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Glenn Thrush, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Sheera Frenkel. “2020 Presidential Debate Live Updates: Trump Sows Doubt on Election Integrity and Refuses to Denounce White Supremacy.” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/live/2020/09/30/us/presidential-debate.
Magazine, POLITICO. “'Trump's Strategy Is To Turn the Debates Into a Dumpster Fire on Steroids'.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 30 Sept. 2020, www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/30/trump-biden-debate-roundup-423475.
Mariam Shawish (1/2)
ReplyDeleteOverall, the debate was the biggest joke of the year. The debates are meant to educate the public, as well as help the people make a decision between either candidate. Instead, the debates were just two old men yelling at each other, robbing the people of the opportunity to be educated. Essentially, it was a big “F U” to the American people.
President Trump and nominee Biden spent the night just fighting with each other, rather than answering the questions. In class we advised that Trump should stick to relating issues to the overall “Keep America Great” theme and to try not to veer of topic. According to our discussion Trump should have “first present their overall theme in the introductory statement… then he will reinforce it with answers to as many specific questions as possible” (Denton 234). Surprisingly, “Keeping America Great” was not mentioned throughout the debate as much as I thought it would be. Instead, President Trump spent the night taking jabs at Biden, which is a strategy that kept Biden flustered and nervous. President Trump also made headlines with the fact that he interrupted both Biden and the moderator Chris Wallace every chance he got. He essentially “bulldozed Mr. Biden and the moderator, Chris Wallace, throughout the evening… [and was] undercutting and disorienting Mr. Biden, rather than on presenting an agenda or a vision for a second term in the White House” (nytimes). Overall, I believe that President Trump acted in both a chilidish and unprofessional matter. He did not stick to any debate strategies, but he I also think that he successfully was able to make Biden nervous throughout the night.
On the other hand, Biden was able to relate every question to an overarching theme: get President Trump out of office. As we all know, Biden is running his campaign on the theme that he is a better candidate than Donald Trump. With that being said, I still do not understand why Biden is the better candidate, and that is because Biden is not clear on what his policies are. For example, when asked about COVID-19 and how he would have handled it he kept referring to having a “plan”, but never said anything specific about what that plan entails. This ties into a lot of Biden’s campaigning, he is always going off on having some sort of plan, but never elaborates more. Despite this, Biden was successful in proving “to Americans that he could hold up under pressure, that he had not lost a step due to his advancing age” (BBC). Although Trump was breathing down his throat for the majority of the night, he was able to successfully keep his cool overall. Overall, I believe that Biden dropped the ball on trying to develop his image as a candidate and show the American people what he would be like as president but managed to stay collected under pressure.
Mariam Shawish (2/2)
DeleteGoing into their next meeting, I would advise that Trump work on staying within the rules of the debate. Following Tuesday night, people are asking for debate rules to be changed to being able to mute the mic of whoever is not speaking. His childish interruptions took away from anything substantial he could have said that night and he need to avoid that moving forward. For Biden, I would recommend that he does not get as flustered as he did. Just by observing his body language, you could easily tell he was letting President Trump get under his skin. I also recommend that he works on establishing his image better.
Works Cited:
“Chapter 9.” Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices, by Robert E. Denton et al., Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, pp. 231–235.
Goldmacher, Shane. “Six Takeaways From the First Presidential Debate.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/debate-takeaways.html.
Zurcher, Anthony. “Presidential Debate: Trump and Biden Trade Insults in Chaotic Debate.” BBC News, BBC, 30 Sept. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54350538.
After watching the first presidential debate, neither candidate gave a performance that could be considered noteworthy and this debate was nowhere near conventional. Each candidate implemented obvious strategies that both helped and hurt their performance in different ways. According to ABC news, “The president moved no numbers that would change where the race stood going in, and Biden solidified his lead..Biden had a total of a 25-point net favorable advantage” (Dowd, 2020).
ReplyDeleteThroughout the duration of the debate, President Trump was noticeably standing sideways and facing Biden with a more nonchalant demeaner while Vice President Biden made an effort to remain connected with the camera, standing straight up with a strong posture. These things, though strategically planned, were telling of how each candidate prepared for the debates and what they prioritized. An idea from Denton says that in a debate the goal should be to “gain an audience decision”(Denton, 2020). This was interesting because Biden seemed to have made a real effort to connect with the American people through emotional appeal and eye contact. For Trump on the other hand, it was apparent that whatever he did prepare was not utilized throughout the debate and he significantly lacked connection with the audience. However, each time Biden was able to get a word in, it seemed very scripted, thought out, and said with a purpose to gain audience attention. For more application to Denton’s logic, the candidates demonstrated some of the other strategies. Specifically, Denton talks about “a confrontation”, where candidates “questioned each other and refuted each other”(Denton, 2020). This seemed to be the major theme of the debate that caused the debate to be disorderly and unorganized. The amount of interruptions throughout the debate was distracting and counterproductive and Washington Post says that The Commission on Presidential Debates plans to add “additional structure” to the debates because more “orderly discussion” is needed (Itkowitz, 2020).
Along with this, something prevalent throughout the entirety of the debate was the lack of a “plan” from either side. Whenever a question was discussed, the candidates were both giving out empty promises or statements with no credibility. Similarly, something that I feel was not executed properly according to Denton, was the idea of “equal and adequate time” for each candidate (Denton, 2020). It almost appeared that a strategy for President Trump was to eliminate the idea of equal and adequate time to speak in order to throw off Vice President Biden. Overall, I would assess both performances as weak because President Trump made it almost impossible for the debate to run smoothly. I believe that Biden definitely took over and won the debate in terms of substance and reaching an greater audience especially when talking about Covid 19 and climate change, however, President Trump may have won on strategy and remembrance despite the way he improperly executed the debate. ABC strongly suggests, “In debate one, Trump lost, and Biden won”(Dowd, 2020).
If I was a debate coach, I would advise both candidates to work on more forward thinking and forward speech rather than banter about the past or about the other candidate. The American people want to know what each of these candidates has planned for the next four years, and it would benefit them greatly to use their time to speak upon that instead of using it to talk about each other. I would advise that Biden work on remaining neutral when the President becomes argumentative and is interrupting him. If he does not stoop to that level, he will stand out as a more professional and serious candidate. Also, for the next debate I believe that Biden should work more on his discussions about topics that Trump is most confident on. For example, Biden may be a strong speaker about climate change, but he falls through the cracks when talking about things such as economics that Trump feels confident on. With this, he will be seen as more of a competitor to the swing voters and to republicans who are unsure about President Trump. On the other hand, I would advise Donald Trump to pull back and talk a lot less than he did. If he focuses on speaking only when he has something of substance to say, he will stand out and important things will be remembered from him. Along with this, Donald Trump should try to connect more with the American people particularly important voting blocs for him such as women.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
John Wagner, A. (2020, September 30). Election live updates: Trump and Biden returning to campaign trail after chaotic first debate. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/09/30/trump-biden-live-updates/
Dowd, M. (2020, September 30). Trump didn't accomplish his goals in 1st presidential debate: ANALYSIS. Retrieved October 01, 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-accomplish-goals-1st-presidential-debate-analysis/story?id=73350018
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. 9th
ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
pt.1
ReplyDeleteWe all thought it and Jake Tapper just said it. “That was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck," (Bowden). In my eyes the first presidential debate of this year was a prime example of what not should a presidential debate. Both candidates were acting very childish and constantly bantering at one another. Most questions given by the moderator, Chris Wallace, were near ignored and most of the debate consisted of personal blows and ignoring Chris Wallace as well as not focusing on the important topics at hand. When watching the debate, you notice that there were wasn’t many strategies used. One I did notice was Biden “Developing an image” (Denton). According to the book, “Issues are one of the two major concerns of the candidate during the debate. The other is image” (Denton). Issues brought up by the moderator did not seem to be much of a concern to the candidates, but you notice they are trying to show off a strong image. When watching you notice most of the confrontation came from Trump’s side, constantly cutting off Biden getting him flustered, to which at one point there was a small snap in Biden, where he had told Trump, “Will You Shut Up, Man?” (Henninger). Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffery Goldberg had tweeted saying, “‘Will you shut up, man’ might be Biden's Gettysburg Address” (Goldberg). Some blows from Trump were more personal than others, such as bringing up his deceased son, as well as former drug addicted son. Trump was trying to give his voters an image of, someone who sees it, wants, takes, it no matter at what costs. It seemed Trump was purposely trying to fluster Biden, due to his lack in public speaking. Biden on the other hand was trying to give his voters an image of someone who is trying to be the exact opposite of Trump. When bringing up his son’s, Biden could have easily stooped to Trump’s level and started bad mouthing his family, but he didn’t. Besides slightly snapping and telling Trump to “shut up” Biden kept his composure trying to show an image of being the better man.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne big fall back in Trump’s side of debate was the fact he didn’t condemn white supremacists. According to CNN political commentator Van Jones, “"The commander in chief refused to condemn White supremacy on the global stage in front of my children, in front of everybody's families, and he was given the opportunity multiple times to condemn White supremacy and he gave a wink and a nod to a racist, Nazi, murderous organization," (Bradner Liptak). One downside to both parties was inefficiency of the discussion of Covid-19. “Biden made multiple references to the 200,000 Americans who have died. But ultimately the debate was not about the pandemic. It was about Trump's belligerence, which in his view can only be considered a positive” (Bradner Liptak). Once Biden called out Trump, Trump tried countering with Swine Flue which became a competition of who caused less deaths, which is a terrible way to use their time on stage. There’s a lot of advice you could give both candidates, but the most important advice that could be given, which should be common sense, Stop with the personal blows and answer the moderator too the best of your ability. The people listening are concerned about what’s happening in America, rather than 90 minutes of talking smack to one another. Hopefully next Debate is much more in control, and questions are actually answered.
ReplyDeleteBowden, John. “CNN's Jake Tapper Calls Debate a 'Hot Mess inside a Dumpster Fire inside a Train Wreck'.” TheHill, The Hill, 30 Sept. 2020, thehill.com/homenews/media/518879-cnns-jake-tapper-calls-debate-a-hot-mess-inside-a-dumpster-fire-inside-a-train.
Bradner, Eric, and Kevin Liptak. “6 Takeaways from the off-the-Rails First Debate between Biden and Trump.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/trump-biden-first-debate-takeaways/index.html.
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Henninger, Daniel. “ 'Will You Shut Up, Man?'.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 30 Sept. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/will-you-shut-up-man-11601507345.
Jessica Bischer
ReplyDelete2020's first Presidential Debate was an utter disappointment to the American people and appalling to a global degree. News anchors and talk show hosts across the nation were left speechless during post-debate analysis. This performance may be the most unprofessional, unconventional, and unpresidential debate this country has ever seen. President Trump's constant interruptions, aggressive personal attacks, and disregard for guidelines, coupled with both candidates' inability to speak the whole truth, created a nearly useless 90-minute reel of childish bickering.
Lowering public expectations of themselves is a common pre-debate strategy for candidates (Denton 227). However, this year was different, and the nominees followed through with their promise to underperform, specifically the incumbent. Viewers expected that the president would be ready to attack and possibly claim a few falsehoods. Americans instead witnessed an unhinged, jarring barrage of aggressive behavior from the current president. Trump most definitely implemented the strategy of developing an image of himself (Denton 236), one that is an embarrassment to voters. On a factual level, the incumbent has demonstrated no hesitation to lie, exaggerate, mislead, and scare the American people (The New York Times). For example, fact-checkers took on Trump's response to the validity of the 2020 election. Trump told false stories of postage workers selling ballots and repeatedly misused the word fraud, to perhaps ignite fear in voters (FactCheck.org). We see another instance of blatant lying when the president claims to have the support of the Portland sheriff amongst protests and violence. Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese quickly let the public know this is false and has never supported Donald Trump (PoliFact.com). Fact-checkers also found Trump to be lying about his manufacturing employment numbers (by nearly 1 million), providing misleading information about public health officials, and dangling empty promises about healthcare to Americans in need (Woodward). It would take hours to file through all of Trump's false claims made during the presidential debate, and in my best interest, will move on to personal attacks. President Trump's digs into both Beau and Hunter Bidenvalienated thousands of terminally ill Americans, substance abuse survivors, and military veterans. It is non-partisan to agree that singling out one's vulnerabilities and emotions with malicious is wrong and should not be used on the national debate stage. Lastly, I have to address one of the most important things Trump said during the first presidential debate, or rather what he did not say. When asked by the moderator, Chris Wallace, to condemn white supremacy, the president practically did everything except that. Instead, he addressed a well-known white supremacist hate group, stating, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by." It was shocking that our president did not condemn, but sympathized with a racial hate group. Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Cory Booker, and former White House staff Michael Cohen and Anthony Scaramucci expressed their concerns about the president encouraging a racial divide in America (ABC, CBS MSNBC). Former White House Lawyer Andrew Cohen said he felt as if Trump "essentially called his supremacist hoard to their battle stations." He believes the president will not denounce these groups because he will need their support when he refuses to turn the presidency over to Joe Biden (MSNBC).
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeletePART ONE
During this year’s election cycle, it has been evidently clear that both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are two completely different candidates with vastly opposite invasions of the future of America. Due to these circumstances, it is evidently clear that the three presidential debates are going to be quite interesting for Americans to watch in the upcoming weeks. With the first debate just one week away (Sept. 29th), things are about to get interesting.
With this being said, although people more recently have claimed the debates can be more entertaining than they necessary, it is important to understand the significance of the presidential debates, especially during this election cycle. To start off, presidential debates act as a way to capture national attention allowing for candidates to reach audiences regarding national topics and concerns in a different type of setting than seen so far along the campaign trail. These debates also allow each candidate to confront each other in a public and live setting allowing for each candidate to question and refute back and forth (Denton 218). And… in the grand scheme of things, debates are important because they attack large audiences, they reinforce many of the pre-existing attitudes of audience members, they help shift a limited number of voters, they help set the political agenda for candidates, they help contribute to the education of audience members and the audience learns more while watching, they affect the images of candidates, and lastly, debates contribute to the public’s confidence in government institutions and leaders (Denton 253). In saying this, it is clear that presidential debates are crucial when looking at the outcome of any election, and it is clear that regardless of annoying theatrics, they are integral in the US election systems.
Now after getting a better understanding of the importance of these presidential debates, it is time to put this year’s candidates to task. To start off, I want to point out a few important things for both candidates especially with the pandemic in mind. For example, due to uncertainty surrounding debate style for the upcoming election due to COVID-19, it is clear of the risk that might come if Biden or Trump were to not show up for a debate. For example, it says that “today, presidential candidates risk the possibility of severe backlash if they decline to debate, they would be perceived as less than open to share ideas on issues, afraid to face challengers, or violators of historical campaign practice,” (Denton). In saying this, although there has been previous uncertainty regarding if Biden or Trump would show up for any of the debates, it is clear to me that if they do not show up, they will be hurting themselves in many ways. With that being said, to start off I would highly recommend both the Biden and Trump campaigns to have their candidates show up for the three scheduled debates.
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeletePART TWO
Now, aside from that recommendation alone, I have a few strategies that I think both Biden and Trump should utilize in these upcoming debates. For the Trump campaign, I would recommend that Trump should try to lower public expectations going into the first debate, set an overall theme and image during the debate to reflect his vision of America, while also targeting undecided voters and those in battle ground states. I also believe that Trump should remain a force as seen in the 2016 debates with Hillary Clinton in which he should call out Biden regarding his fitness for president while also questioning his previous record of 47 years in public office. Interestingly enough, Trump claimed on Monday (09/21), that he believes that Joe Biden is “going to do great” during the first presidential debate scheduled for next week. He then went on to slamming Joe Biden saying that he has done more in 47 months than Biden has done in 47 years (Kaplan). When Trump says these things, not only has he started to try lower the expectations of his debate by hyping up Biden, but he is also making a stance by openly criticizing Biden off the bat. In the end, due to his successes with the debates and the multiple mic drop moments that he performed when facing off against Hillary Clinton, I believe that Trump strategy will be strong again against Joe Biden.
On the other hand, for the Biden Team, the following debate strategies are what I would recommend Biden try utilizing. For starters I think that like Trump, Biden needs to try and lower public expectations and go into the debate overly prepared and ready to pack punches. While doing this I think that Biden needs to set a symbolic message / image of his vision of the United States while simultaneously showing America that he is physically and mentally fit to hold the office of the President. Also, Biden needs to focus on being able to respond to debate questions while not mumbling, stuttering, or completely going off topic, as seen during many recent live interviews more recently. Biden also needs to put his controversy of his bad gaffes to sleep by being a powerhouse on the debate stage. Although this strategy has been determined due to some political bias I have, I think that these debates are what will make or break Biden and ultimately determine the fate of the election.
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeletePART THREE
Now, when looking back at American history and with previous candidates and previous debates it is important to reflect on the mistakes and the techniques that previous candidates made and used. Some mistakes that have stood out in the past it says that “Jimmy Carter in 1980, Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Barak Obama in 2012, often stumble in their first debates because they arrived both over confidant and out of practice” (Tumulty). In saying this, President Trump, an incumbent nominee, like the Presidents previously listed needs to make sure he is ready to debate more than ever by spending more time practicing and preparing than originally planned. The same thing goes for Biden. I think that he has to be overly prepared too. Additionally, Trump and Biden need to make sure they connect with voters and not let this debate be seen as “pointless.” In the end, I think that Trump and Biden should try to emulate a hybrid of both Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy during their debates acting both calm and reasonable, while also remaining professional and stern.
Work Cited:
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Kaplan, Talia. “Trump Says He Assumes Biden's ‘Going to Do Great’ at First Presidential Debate.” Fox News, 21 Sept. 2020, www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-biden-first-presidential-debate.
Tumulty, K. (2020, June 26). Opinion | It's time to rethink the presidential debates. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-rethink-the-presidential-debates/2020/06/25/d763e3e6-b6f7-11ea-a510-55bf26485c93_story.html
Newcomb – Blog 5
ReplyDeleteIt is safe to say that we can all agree that the first presidential debate was a disaster across the board. My expectations were that President Donald Trump would come out onto the stage guns blazing, and Joe Biden would fumble over his words, maybe not even make sense at points. I was correct about Trump. He immediately tried to throw Biden off of his game from the first question, similar to what he tried to do with Hillary Clinton back in 2016. The difference between this tactic from 2016 and 2020 is that Biden and Clinton are two completely different debaters. Clinton fired right back at Trump in 2016, but Biden just sat back and chuckled. Someone in the zoom comments said that Biden was in a lose-lose situation, because if he argued back, he was stooping to the same level as Trump and there would be back and forth bickering that would go nowhere, and if he sat back and said nothing, he looked weak.
Unfortunately for Biden, I believed that he looked weak most of the debate. His strong points were when he was talking about his son, a military veteran, and when he talked about a clear plan to handle the environment. Other than that, he seemed to avoid questions and talk about having a plan, but he never would clearly state the plan. Contrary to my expectations for him, he spoke in clear, concise sentences. It was evident that he had been prepped well and followed a few pre-debate strategies. For example, he determined a target audience of women, people of color, military families, and the middle class. Moreover, it was clear that he had devised and rehearsed possible answers, especially when it came to the issue of the environment (Denton 230, 231). One of his weak points was when Trump asked him to name support that he has from law enforcement officials. Biden did not name any, although he has “more than 175 current and former law enforcement officers and officials, including former Obama official Janet Napolitano” who have endorsed him since early September (Fordham).
As for Trump, he seemed confident throughout the debate, but was ill tempered towards the moderator, Chris Wallace, about getting more time to rebut against Biden. He consistently tried to “relate issues to an overall theme,” by bringing up law and order and trying to get Biden to say it (Denton 234). He also tried to develop an image that he was stronger than Biden, especially by saying that he has done more in politics in forty-seven months than Biden has done in forty-seven years. I think Trump’s biggest downfall with the biggest social media backlash would be when he refused to denounce white supremacy. Telling the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” which they celebrated on social media. Yesterday, the day after the debate, Trump claimed to never have heard of the Proud Boys (Murphy). In regard to post-debate strategies, Trump is using social media trying to prove that the American voters believe that he won the debate, despite most of the polling efforts.
According to a CNN poll of debate watchers, six out of ten voters believed that Biden won the debate, while only twenty-eight percent believe that Trump won. Fifty-seven percent of debate watchers said that the debate did not affect who they will vote for in the upcoming election (Brewster). Donald Trump tweeted out today, Thursday, that CSpan had created a Twitter poll asking who won the debate, and sixty-nine percent of voters voted for Trump while only nineteen percent of voters voted for Biden. For the upcoming debates to run smoother than the previous, I think that debate coaches need to coach Trump to not interject when Biden is trying to speak. More often than not, Biden will misspeak without people trying to throw him off of his game. For both of them, they need to start outlining their plans if elected president. The bickering has to end, and we need to hear about the plans for the next four years.
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020
DeleteFordham, Evie. Biden Deflects Trump's Demand at Debate to 'Name One' Law Enforcement Group Backing Him. 30 Sept. 2020, www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-trump-debate-law-enforcement-support.
Murphy, Paul P. Trump's Debate Callout Bolsters Far-Right Proud Boys. 30 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/politics/proud-boys-trump-debate-trnd/index.html.
Brewster, Jack. Today's 2020 Election Polls: Biden Won The Debate, Surveys Show. 30 Sept. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/09/30/todays-2020-election-polls-biden-won-the-debate-surveys-show/.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1311806882210865152/photo/1
Ryan Miller pt 1
ReplyDeleteFour years ago, we were left scratching our heads following the most watched debate in American history (84 million viewers according to Deadline) between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Fewer viewers tuned in for Trump’s matchup against Joe Biden, but we had a lot more head scratching. It’s fair to say audiences walked away from the first 2020 presidential debate with more questions than answers.
Neither candidate ‘won.’ Trump couldn’t contain himself or stop interrupting Biden, and Biden couldn’t help but be flustered as a result. As far as pre-debate strategies go, Trump took a page out of the lowering expectations playbook. As noted in Political Campaign Communications, setting the bar low prior to a debate allows for a poorer performance to come across stronger. Before and during the debate, Trump touted Biden’s years of debating and public service in office as an edge.
As Kelly Hooper points out for Politico, Trump’s campaign team made the mistake of emailing a message to supporters about the results of the debate before it even started. I saw tweets about this prior to the debate and had to do a double take to make sure it wasn’t fake. The email declaring Trump the winner but focused on the fact that, “I will ALWAYS fight to put America First no matter what and that I will NEVER stop working to Make America Great Again.”
Trump’s strategy during the debate to throw Biden off his game. Rather than strengthen his own image or stick to his guns about “building the wall” or “fake news,” Trump spoke over Biden or asserted that he was lying. Trump continued calling Biden “not smart” hoping to weaken his image.
Ryan Miller pt 2
DeleteAs for Biden’s performance, I likened his pivotal moments to climbing to the top of a waterslide only to decide not to ride it. Momentum was built, the stage was set, but Biden simply couldn’t capitalize. His strongest moment came speaking about Americans waking up to an empty seat at the dining room table from the void of a lost loved one, but the moment was so quick that it might’ve been missed. When Biden spoke about his late son Beau, he didn’t mention his name prompting Trump to ask if he was speaking about him or Hunter. This distracted from the points Biden attempted to make and in turn took away the chance for a powerful moment.
Biden did share encouraging news that Hunter had overcome substance abuse, but as a viewer my focus was more on Trump’s unhinged decision to go there in the first place.
My advice to both candidates would be to do the opposite of what they did in the first round. While that may sound silly, it’s true. Trump must back off and search for more moments to look into the camera and the eyes of the American people. His inability to denounce white supremacy was the single worst moment of the debate in my opinion, and I’ve even seen people right leaning folks agree. It’s alright to have differences in opinion in policy, we are seeing that when it comes to the teamwork of Biden and Bernie Sanders. What is not alright, however, is to not stand up against hate. Trump needs a John McCain moment, such as when McCain fielded a racist question aimed at Obama and countered with a defense that he was a good man and didn’t deserved discrimination. Biden on the other hand needs to stand firm and ignore Trump, similarly to how children are taught that sometimes if you don’t give a bully your attention they will stop.
Sources:
Denton Jr., Robert E., et al. "Political Campaign Communications in the 2016 Presidential election." Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices, 9th ed., Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Johnson, Ted. (2020, September 30). Presidential Debate Viewership Falls From 2016 To 73.1 Million, Deadline. Accessed October 1, 2020, from https://deadline.com/2020/09/donald-trump-presidential-debate-fox-news-1234589031/
Hooper, Kelly. (2020, September 29). Trump email says he ‘finished debating’ Biden hours before debate begins. Politico. Accessed October 1, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/29/trump-biden-debate-early-email-423224
The first 2020 Presidential Debate was, to be nice, a dumpster fire. Leading up to Tuesday night, many guessed that Trump would be disruptive and Biden would become flustered, but no one could have predicted the extent to which these problems would impact the debate. The strategies and performances of both presidential nominees were extremely unconventional. For Trump, this started well before he walked onto stage. Past candidates have exaggerated their opponent’s debating abilities prior to facing them in order to make their performance seem worse, like Obama did when facing McCain (Denton et al. 229). However, Trump did the opposite by making fun of Biden’s speech tendencies and calling him mentally unfit, despite the “Trump campaign's work to raise expectations for the Democrat ahead of the showdown” (Steakin et al.). This may have worked against him because it made the strong parts of Biden’s debate performance seem even more impressive.
ReplyDeleteDuring the debate, neither nominee implemented standard strategies, such as following an overall theme. Trump didn’t even use his “Make America Great Again” or “Keep America Great” slogans. Biden didn’t utilize an obvious theme either, but he did create cohesiveness between his stances on issues by appealing to the emotions of voters. For example, he looked into the camera and spoke directly to Americans, making his messages feel more personal. He also made statements that were emotionally powerful, such as when he discussed the effects of COVID on Americans, especially those who will be missing family members this holiday season. Although he lacked a theme to reference, he drew upon relatable feelings for voters and acknowledged the struggles and frustration of Americans. Meanwhile, Trump’s biggest strategy of the night—interrupting—proved to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, he effectively flustered his opponent and took away much of his talking time. Sometimes, he would let Biden build up steam, only to disrupt during the statement’s most powerful moment. By getting on Biden’s nerves, Trump caused him to make some childish replies. However, this strategy also made Trump seem immature and created a debate that was almost unbearable to watch, for Democrats and Republicans.
I don’t think either candidate “won” the first debate. Neither consistently stayed on topic or spoke specifically about their policies. Biden had a few powerful statements, when Trump would let him talk. COVID, climate change, and his plea at the end of the debate for Americans to vote were all strong segments. Unfortunately, he stooped to Trump’s level of immaturity, calling his opponent names and telling him to shut up. Biden made it a two-way childish fight, instead of coming across as the mature and poised candidate he claims to be in comparison to the incumbent. Trump, however, didn’t have any moments that were notable in a positive way, in my opinion. His constant disruptions of Biden and Chris Wallace were annoying. This could hurt his chances with swing voters. Additionally, he didn’t play off of the speaking weaknesses that he has so strongly insisted Biden has. “The person involved in Trump’s reelection effort said the president ruined several moments…when Biden appeared to be on the brink of delivering an unsatisfactory answer, but was interrupted by Trump before he could complete his sentence” (Orr). Next debate, Trump should give Biden chances to talk himself into a corner and keep interruptions limited to statements that will trip up his opponent, not just prevent him from talking. Biden needs to remain composed and talk about specific plans that will make his America better than Trump’s if he wants to secure this election.
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
DeleteOrr, Gabby. “'A Huge Misstep': Trump Allies See a Lost Opportunity in First Debate.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 30 Sept. 2020, www.politico.com/news/2020/09/30/trump-allies-debate-biden-424082.
Steakin, Will, et al. “Trump Targets Biden's Mental Health in Debate Lead-up, despite Aides' Efforts to Raise Expectations.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 26 Sept. 2020, www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-targets-bidens-mental-health-debate-lead-aides/story?id=73264525.
Nicholas Ciampanelli (1/2)
ReplyDeleteReflecting upon the first 2020 Presidential Debate, it is difficult to swallow the confusion and buffoonery that unfolded upon the debate stage. The country was perplexed by the two candidates – whom are campaigning for the most influential position in the world – having been compared to children bickering over a toy: the future of the United States. Despite this, the debate had some semblance of normality due to the use of common political debate strategies; the most prominent of these strategies was to develop their public image. According to Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices by Robert Denton, Judith Trent, and Robert Friedenberg, candidates leverage this strategy by intertwining political “issues and [personal] images… in all manner of convolutions… [which] mutually affect one another” (236). The candidates did such during the debate by fusing their unique body languages, tones, and emphasized political issues.
President Trump broadcasted an image of a “Macho Man,” a dominant figure controlling the debate stage, which was primarily evident from his tone. According to “Six Takeaways From the First Presidential Debate” by Shane Goldmacher, Trump immediately “came out as an aggressor, speaking over Mr. Biden in what seemed to be… a mud-slinging contest.” This aggressive image was deepened by consistently interrupting Biden and Wallace; according to “How to Talk to People Who Constantly Interrupt (And Why They Do It)” by Brittany Wong, the President “interrupted rival Joe Biden or Wallace at least 128 times.” Furthermore, Trump’s body language was rigid and stiff throughout the debate as he towered over the podium, utilizing it as a pseudo-presidential podium, to impose his image of authority. Lastly, Trump intertwined his image by promoting “law and order” under his administration. According to “Topics for the first presidential debate include coronavirus and Supreme Court” by Grace Segers, Trump states he “ordered the Office of Budget Management to look into cutting federal funding to cities where he says ‘weak mayors’ are allowing ‘anarchists’ to ‘harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses.’” These actions depict excessive authority and control; this image fails to resonate with American voters and cast doubt on the President’s leadership abilities. Given the President’s negative image from this past debate, I recommend Trump reduces his amount of interruptions for well-timed, witty remarks, such as his “Because then you’d be in jail” remark in 2016, which continue to resonate with American voters.
Nicholas Ciampanelli (2/2)
DeleteBiden’s image approach was opposed that of Trump, for he sought to appear easygoing and compassionate to the everyday American, which was reflected in Biden’s body language. Throughout the debate, Biden “kept turning – physically – to face the cameras and address the American people instead of his chattering rival,” which was unique to his debate-style and expressed compassion and a willingness to connect with voters (Goldmacher). Biden’s tone also expressed his charisma, for he stated the debate was “‘not about my family or his family. It’s about your family. The American people. He doesn’t want to talk about what you need,’” conveying a pure-hearted interest in the well-being of all Americans (Goldmacher). This image resonated with voters as he sought to speak from a place of compassion and with the country’s best-intentions at heart. Lastly, Biden’s image was reflected in his platform to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about his potential response to the virus, Biden “suggested implementing a nationwide three-month mask mandate” upon being elected (Segers). Although such a policy is not favored by some, such a policy exemplifies the measures he is willing to take to protect the health of American citizens. Therefore, while an image of compassion worked well for Biden, he was often steamrolled by Trump’s consistent badgering. Although Biden shifted his responses later into the debate, he must reconsider how “easy-going” he wants his image to convey and display the “backbone” of leadership required to be the President of the United States if he hopes to “win” the next debate.
Works Cited
DeleteDenton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. 9th ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Goldmacher, Shane. Six Takeaways From the First Presidential Debate. 30 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/debate-takeaways.html.
Segers, Grace. “Topics for the First Presidential Debate Include Coronavirus and Supreme Court.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 29 Sept. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/first-presidential-debate-topics-2020-biden-trump/.
Wong, Brittany. “How To Talk To People Who Constantly Interrupt (And Why They Do It).” HuffPost, HuffPost, 1 Oct. 2020, www.huffpost.com/entry/how-to-talk-people-constantly-interrupting_l_5f74bac2c5b6374c55881fff?ncid=APPLENEWS00001.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChristyna Stagg (1/2)
ReplyDeleteOne of the debate strategies that was noted in Denton et al Ch.9 and discussed in class last week was devising and rehearsing possible answers, which is also known as “debate prep” (Denton 230). If a candidate rehearses and practices these possible answers, it will show throughout the debate if that candidate goes through with these possible answers successfully. This was shown throughout Biden’s performance during the debate. This came with a little twist because while Biden was sticking to his talking points and staying to these rehearsed answers, he had the challenge of not trying to engage what Trump was throwing at him (Blake). On top of this, Biden also denied Trump of what he wanted during the debate. At some points in the debate, Biden lost his cool and became frustrated with Trump repeatedly interrupting him. At one of these moments, Biden stated, “Will you shut up, man?”, “It’s hard to get any word in with this clown—excuse me, this person.” and “Keep yapping, man.” (Blake). This strategy was similar to one we discussed because Biden tried to follow through with it but it differed because he had to go through some uneasy moments throughout the debate of Trump interrupting him like a kindergartener.
Overall, the debate was not enlightening at all from a policy standpoint because Trump wanted a “food fight” (Blake). Biden did not give up to Trump and let him ruin his whole performance during the debate. As someone who was watching their first debate ever for a presidential election, it was an awful one to watch. I viewed more childish bickering between the two candidates and barely learned anything. This is extremely sad learning barely anything during a political debate because it just shows the two potential leaders of our country going at it with each other and feuding like they are children. For the next debate, I would advise Biden not to try to engage with Trump’s childish behavior of interrupting and Trump not to interrupt. Learning not to interrupt someone should be taught at a young age. This is something that Trump obviously choose not to learn because at such a significant and critical political event, he has shown the United States of America that this is something he has not learned and chose to keep interrupting Biden, acting extremely childish.
Christyna Stagg (2/2)
ReplyDeleteI would also advise Trump to not say misleading and false statements for continuing onto the next debate. One of these statements included Trump saying he has “Florida, Texas, Ohio and Portland”. He also further on stated that the Sheriff of Portland came out on Tuesday and said he supported President Trump (PolitiFact Staff). Sheriff of Multnomah County, Mike Reese further tweeted he does not back Trump (PolitiFact Staff). Sheriff Mike Reese further stated, “As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him” (PolitiFact Staff). Another misleading statement from Trump was when he stated his rallies were “outdoors” (PolitiFact Staff). Although some of his rallies may have been held outdoors, he did hold rallies indoors in Nevada and Oklahoma in recent months. On June 20th, Trump held an indoor rally at the BOK Center in Tusla, Oklahoma. Arena officials said the crowd totaled to around 6,200 people (PolitiFact Staff). Trump also held another indoor rally in Henderson, Nevada (PolitiFact Staff). Although Nevada has a state rule prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people, Trump continued to have 5,600 supported at Xtreme Manufacturing, a warehouse. Many supporters of Trump at this rally were not wearing masks. Because of this, the company was fined by the city for multiple violations (PolitiFact Staff). Hopefully the next debate will be more productive and educational than the first debate of the 2020 election between President Trump and Biden.
Work Cited:
Denton, Robert E., et al. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Blake, A. (2020, September 30). Analysis | 5 takeaways from the first presidential debate. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/29/takeaways-first-presidential-debate/
2, Bloggersstated on March, et al. PolitiFact - Fact-Checking the First 2020 Presidential Debate, Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump. 29 Sept. 2020, www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/30/fact-checking-first-2020-presidential-debate-joe-b/.
The first 2020 Presidential debate turned into quite a show on Tuesday. As many expected, a lot of little comments were countered back and forth from the two candidates. In my opinion believe Trump and Biden’s approaches to the debate were surprisingly similar. Although they come off as two polar opposites, however the strategy of developing an image is very apparent. According to the textbook, “Issues are one of two major concerns of the candidate during the debate. The other is image” (Denton, 236). The two of them only emphasized image, the entire time and failed to inform the public on what their true plans are for the upcoming term. It is very disappointing because America needs to know what our future looks like, in a time where it is certainly unclear. Additionally, the coverage they receive on social media has constantly stressed characterization of the two with constant articles, storylines, and tweets. Trump’s approach was also to try and attempt to outshine Biden, although that was very hard to accomplish given the fact that the moderator would interrupt every five minutes. The two candidates constantly were speaking over each other and made it hard for anyone to get the true spotlight. Furthermore, the authors in the textbook also mention when referring to overall image, “The principal image strategies that can be utilized in political debating include the development of a leadership style, personification, and identification” (Denton 236). Other than identification, the other two factors were not closed to accomplish by either candidate on Tuesday night. Moving forward, the two of them need to focus on what is important, rather than the useless yet entertaining banter. I think one post-debate strategy the two of them should consider using is using audience members to project a positive view. The two views of them in my eyes are both currently negative, and I feel as if one of them is able to change that undesirable position they will be able to accumulate some votes. One of the ways the textbook suggests doing so is with “the use of surrogates, internet postings, advertisements, audience members, and letters are designed to influence public perception…”(Denton, 243). Trump actually put up sound bites of him live during the debate. I thought that this was an interesting strategy and one that boded well for Trump. Everyone is used to such an instantaneous world and with people trying to get their views out on the web, one of the first things they’ll see is what Trump spoke about. One thing that really damaged Trump, is when he attacked Joe Biden’s son. In a CNN article, they quoted Biden response to that which was, “This is not about my family or his family, this about your family, the American people”( Macaya). This was an excellent reply from Joe and Trump looked very foolish after that. Throughout the debate, the two were rattled and truly shook at some points, but during those blunders Trump looked worse than Biden.
ReplyDeleteIn an article on CNBC, they revealed some very interesting statistics on the debate. Author, Kevin Breuninger reported, “A CNBC/Change Research poll conducted Tuesday night and Wednesday found 53% of likely voters nationwide said Biden did a better job in the debate, compared with 29% for Trump. The poll also found 45% of those surveyed saying Trump performed worse than expectations, while 11% said the same for Biden. But just 2% of respondents said the debate changed their vote, versus 98% who said it didn’t” (Brueninger). At least in my eyes, these numbers seemed accurate. Joe Biden in the first debate was very good at speaking to the audience at home. He addressed the camera often along with hand gestures towards us. One thing I thought he struggled with was his rebuttals against Trump. The moderator, Chris Wallace, took over that role for him which is something I hope we see change in the upcoming elections. Some things I thought Trump did well was stick to his strengths. He repeated his slogans often, explained his platform much clearer than Joe, and spoke better throughout the whole debate. Keys for Trump to work on next time is to not seem bothered by any backside insult given by Joe Biden, and to develop a better relationship with the moderator early on in the debate. Nonetheless, I think it is very intriguing that only 2% of people changed their vote after the first debate. These two potential leaders of our country will have their hands full for the upcoming debates.
DeleteBreuninger , Kevin. “Biden Is Still Leading in the Polls, and Voters Say He Won His First Debate against Trump.” CNBC, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/biden-leads-polls-voters-say-he-beat-trump-in-first-debate.html.
Macaya, Melissa. “First 2020 Presidential Debate News Coverage and Fact Check.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 Sept. 2020, www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/presidential-debate-coverage-fact-check-09-29-20/index.html.
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9 th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeletePART ONE
After the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, it is no secret that the debate was a heated and intense exchange that understandably can be described as chaotic. When looking back at and reflecting on this debate, it is clear that it was far different from any other debate seen before in history and aside from the small things regarding having no pre-debate handshake, being socially distanced, or having a limited audience, this debate was far more divisive than ever seen before. These divisive viewpoints during the debate ranged from a variety of topics including both candidates’ previous records in government, the Supreme Court vacancy, COVID-19, the economy, racial tensions and violence around the country, climate change, and election integrity with mail in voting. When discussing all these topics, the disagreements that both Biden and Trump had with one another lead to interruptions and bickering that has caused for a major amount of negative spotlight in the aftermath.
Now when looking at the debate and the post-debate coverage, even though I think that the debate was a little embarrassing for both candidates, I believe that Trump was the real winner. Not only was Trump assertive when answering questions, but Trump was also really good at stealing the spotlight away from Biden after Biden was done talking. Trump did this by interrupting and using phrases to catch the audience’s attention as he did in 2016 when debating Hillary Clinton. Additionally, it was clear that Trump was able to successfully fluster Biden throughout the whole debate as to where at some points Biden would simply just stop talking. In a way, even though the interruptions did get to be annoying and un-presidential, I think that Trump was able to get under Biden’s skin and show voters Biden’s real weakness as a presidential candidate. Lastly, Trump clearly was prepared for this debate because he always had a quick answer to every question he was asked and he always had a comment to make when responding to Biden.
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Biden appeared weak throughout the whole debate. Not only did he allow Trump to walk all over him throughout the night, but Biden seemingly could not finish his own answers and sentences whenever Trump interrupted him. Biden also never seemed to provide a laid-out plan for many of the debate topics but instead said that Trump had none, and that regardless, his was better. One part that stood out to me the most was when Trump asked Biden to name one organization that supports him, and Biden said nothing. By not responding to a simple question for me shows weakness. If Biden could not look Trump in the eye and fight back, for me Biden made himself look hapless. Additionally, the so called “moderator,” Chris Wallace” also acted as a defense for Biden as to where Biden should have responded and followed up with Trump instead of Wallace doing it for him. In many cases, Wallace refuted Trump more times than Biden did, meaning I think that Wallace was doing what Biden should have been doing as a debtor himself against Trump. On another note however, Biden did have some highlights as to where he was able to speak about his legitimate plan for Climate change while Trump remained idle seeming as if Trump had no plan. Additionally, Biden also seemed relatable when talking about his son “Boe Biden” and his experience with drug addiction in which I thought of as a good way of connecting to a large population of Americans who have dealt with drug addiction. This part was Biden’s only strong parts.
Now when looking at strategies as discussed in chapter 9 of the textbook, I think that both Biden and Trump did not do enough with “lowering expectations” for themselves. Like I pointed out in last week’s post, I thought that both were doing a good job at lowering expectations but it was obvious that by Trump not acting presidential, and by Biden not being able to answer many questions, America was very “disappointed,” seemingly more disappointed than expected. On another note, regardless of the “dumpster fire” that many described the debate as, it was clear that the debate still served its purpose. For example, as I pointed out last week, it says that debates allow each candidate to confront each other in a public and live setting allowing for each candidate to question and refute back and forth (Denton 218). In saying this again, it was a clear that both candidates actively confronted each other in which the voters were finally able to get a real glimpse at the interaction between both candidates regardless of how people perceived it.
Matthew Bruin
ReplyDeletePART THREE
With that being said, people are calling for the remain debates to be canceled blaming President Trump for the chaos. On top of calls to cancel the debates, it has been reported that The Commission on Presidential Debates say they are “adding new ‘tools to maintain order’ to the upcoming debates” (Associated Press). The Associated Press also reported that “Trump’s frequent interruptions of the Democratic presidential nominee defined Tuesday night’s debate, with Biden frequently unable to complete a sentence” (Associated Press). In response to this, CNBC reported that President Trump “suggested that he would not accept any expected change to the rule of his remaining debates” because Trump claims that he easily won last time. (Mangan, Breuninger). At the end of the day, regardless of any possible changes, I do think that this debate did not change any voters’ minds, and I think that instead it made voters more upset with the reality behind this election. Although I think that Trump won the debate many people don’t think either did. In other words, if people liked President Trump before this debate, I think they like him more, and for those who hate President Trump, they probably hate him more. Same thing goes for Biden. However, even though I believe that the debate helped point out to Americans of Biden’s lack of mental preparedness for the job of being President, I think that this debate overall was a mess for both candidates.
Ultimately, even though there have been calls to change the debate rules or when looking at calls for Biden to not debate again, I think that both candidates for the next debate need to focus on being over-prepared, lowering expectations, while asserting to Americans that they will both show up to the next debate. Additionally, I think that Biden needs to work on taking command of the stage while Trump needs to focus more on acting presidential while nailing certain cmapingin points.
Work Cited:
Denton, Robert E., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, 9th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.
“The Latest: Trump Says He 'Enjoyed' Debate with Biden.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 1 Oct. 2020, apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-alliance-pennsylvania-a4b21a1b5756d6b829fea8299205d0c2.
Mangan, Dan, and Kevin Breuninger. “Trump Suggests He Won't 'Allow' Rule Changes for next Debates with Biden.” CNBC, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/presidential-debates-trump-suggests-he-wont-allow-rule-changes.html.
Xavier Cullen
ReplyDeleteIt was clear that President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden would be polar opposites in the debate. Trump resorted to constantly interrupting and attacking Biden, and Biden responded by trying to appeal to moderate voters who are tired of the clown fiesta that is the Trump administration. One key moment that showed the hostility between the two candidates was when Biden was criticizing Trump’s refusal to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in 2018 because it is “filled with losers,” referencing the many fallen war veterans in the cemetery [The Atlantic].
“My son [Beau Biden] was in Iraq,” Biden said. “He spent a year there. He was not a loser, he was a patriot and the people left behind there are heroes." Biden’s son, Beau, served in Iraq and died of cancer in 2015. Trump took that opportunity to attack Biden’s other son, Hunter, for his cocaine use which got him discharged from the military [Detroit Free Press]. I don’t think these types of personal attacks against Biden’s family, especially over something so sensitive as drug abuse, something that has hurt so many people in America.
Viewers agree with me, too. Only 29% of likely voters said Trump did a better job in the debate, compared to 53% saying Biden did better [CNBC]. Trump is trying to rely so much on his personality and abrasiveness that won him the election in 2016, but the American voters have grown since then and have seen what that type of candidate leads to — panic, uncertainty, and death.
While the debate helped Biden considerably, it didn’t help voters understand more about the policy debates at hand like climate change, COVID-19 relief, and the economy. Instead, all we got were attacks, interruptions, and lies. Debates are supposed to give audiences “a decision on the issues” and J. Jeffrey Auer said that a debate needs to be a “[clash] of ideas, assumptions, evidence, and arguments” [Denton]. However, it seems that political debates today have devolved into personal insults and jabs.
Joe Biden has considerable momentum, and I think that his lead will grow even more once Kamala Harris takes on Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, and now that Trump has to quarantine because he has COVID-19, Biden should take all of this momentum and capitalize off of it.
Sources:
“Debates in Political Campaigns.” Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices, by Robert E. Denton et al., Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, p. 220.
Breuninger, Kevin. “Biden Is Still Leading in the Polls, and Voters Say He Won His First Debate against Trump.” CNBC, CNBC, 1 Oct. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/biden-leads-polls-voters-say-he-beat-trump-in-first-debate.html.
Goldberg, Jeffrey. “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and 'Suckers'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 3 Sept. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/.
Behrmann, Savannah. “'I Don't Know Beau': Trump Attacks Joe Biden as Former Vice President Reflects on Late Son Beau Biden.” Detroit Free Press, USA TODAY, 30 Sept. 2020, www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/09/30/beau-was-not-loser-biden-defends-his-late-sons-military-service-after-reports-trump-disparaging-serv/3584230001/.