After Monday’s first televised debate between the Presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, two more are scheduled between them next month. Their run-mates would debate separately.
Over the years, these televised debates have been a deciding factor for millions of Americans choosing their President. Though these debates, running non-stop for 40 years, are hugely popular they are not mandated by the Constitution.
The debates attract wide audiences even from outside America. Calls for US-style debates in other democracies, even in India, aren’t uncommon. In 2010, the United Kingdom adopted a US-type model of debate featuring Nick Clegg (representing the Liberal Democrats), David Cameron (Conservatives) and Gordon Brown (Labour).
The first debate
The first-ever debate in a television studio took place on September 26, 1960 between Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy and Republican candidate Richard Nixon, who was then the Vice President. The debate was telecast by WBBM-TV . The duo battled three more times in what is now famously known as ‘The Great Debates’.
The first debate lasted for almost an hour and largely covered national issues. The second and third one centred around US involvement in two islands off China. The final debate was on US relations with Cuba.
The debate brought two contrasting people on the same plank – the young, charismatic Kennedy and the experienced orator Nixon. But it was Kennedy who ruled in the debates. It is said that Nixon was visibly indisposed during the debate and he sweat profusely, which audience didn’t go down well with the audience.
In an interview much later, Don Hewitt the producer/director of the show said, “When that [first] debate was over, I realized that we didn’t have to wait for an election day. We just elected a president. It all happened on television.”
The debate was broadcasted on the radio as well. The popular belief was that the people who ‘heard’ the debate preferred Nixon, while those who ‘saw’ it liked Kennedy.
“The Great Debates marked television's grand entrance into presidential politics. They afforded the first real opportunity for voters to see their candidates in competition, and the visual contrast was dramatic,” writes Erika Tyner Allen in the >Encyclopedia of Television .
Eight years later, after Kennedy’s assassination and another term for Democrats, Nixon became President in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972. But a cautious Nixon never agreed to a televised debate in these 12 years.
1976: the reboot
US, then marred by the infamous Watergate and a prolonged war against Vietnam, faced the 1976 elections with two ambitious contenders — Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. The televised debate was restarted, with an addition of a separate debate with Vice-Presidential nominees.
In the book Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s, Yanek Mieczkowski writes how both Carter and Ford watched ‘The Great Debates' and prepared themselves for the presidential debate. Mieczkowski even mentions that one of Carter's assistant asked him to stand in a podium so that he looks "as tall as Ford".
An estimated 84 million viewers watched the first debate, held on September 23 in Philadelphia, devoted to domestic policy, according to the book. At the end of the third debate, odds favoured Carter, who went on to become the President.
1980: When Reagan ruled the TV
Four years later, when Carter was seeking a second-term, Republicans selected former Hollywood actor and the then California Governor Ronald Reagan as their nominee. Reagan was a known face in television as a host and motivational speaker. His experience came in handy during debates.
Ronald Reagan (right) with Jimmy Carter. “Carter's and Reagan's debate performances were measured in terms of "who won" in the media reports and academic studies that followed. All political debates have been ultimately measured that way, wrote Sidney Kraus in the book Televised Presidential Debates and Public Policy .
Though Reagan won landslide, thwarting Democrats even from the Senate, an investigation titled Gambling With History: Reagan in the White House published in 1983 marred his thumping win. The report, dubbed as ‘Debategate,’ narrated how Reagan’s camp managed to access Carter’s briefing papers before the debates, which helped Reagan counter his rival.
1992: the three-corner fight
As debates became a custom in the US Presidential election scene, the 1992 debate witnessed a unique three-cornered fight between incumbent President George H.W. Bush, Democratic nominee Bill Clinton and independent candidate Ross Perot. It was in this debate that, Bush senior is believed to have said, “Read my lips, no new taxes.” He had actually said those lines during his acceptance speech earlier. But it was Mr. Clinton who won the elections.
Goodbye studios, hello universities
The format of debates has largely remained unchanged over the years. A tossed coin would decide who will open first. Each candidate would get two minutes for introduction followed by 90 seconds to answer each question and 60 seconds for rebuttal. Then two minutes at the end for closing remarks. Over the years, the debates have moved from TV studios to indoor theatres and town halls. The trend of open air debates at university premises began in 2000, with the University of Massachusetts hosting a debate between George Bush (Jr.) and Al Gore. Hofstra University has been hosting presidential debates for the last three elections.
Debates remain, gadgets change
The 2008 election debates, though conducted by television channels gave viewers a new option to watch and participate — YouTube. It was for the first time citizens were allowed to pose questions through YouTube. This year Facebook and Twitter have been new introductions.
Nielsen’s >Election Central website mentions $159 million was spent online for political campaigns in 2012, and by 2016 election, that figure is estimated to reach $995 million.
While the actual viewership of Monday's Clinton-Trump debate will be known only tomorrow, commentators are expecting a record viewership this time. The results are clearer in the social world. #debatenight, Donald Trump, Hillary and even #Trumpsniffle were trending on social media. If Twitter mentions is the new parameter to judge, it was Donald Trump's day with over 2.37 million, but that includes a sizeable anti-Trump tweets too. Ms. Clinton was mentioned more than 307 thousand times.
