Americans expect more from political debate than we usually feel. This year is quite an exception.
I watched the first Indiana gubernatorial debate on October 2nd with great interest. Just minutes into the hour-long debate, which featured Democratic Sen. Jennifer McCormick and Republican Mike Braun, it felt like this was going to be a good outcome. Democratic Party Night. After just a few minutes, I realized I was disappointed to learn that this important moment would not be seen by as many Hoosier voters as I had hoped.
Both presidential debates, at the very least, showed sharp contrasts between the participants that helped shape voters’ decisions. President Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance in late June prompted calls from many in his party for him to withdraw from the race. This performance showed his greatest vulnerability. That he’s just too old for the job.
But the point is, there wasn’t much of a change in the polling data after that terrible night. One might conclude that it was not as important to voters as it was to the political class. But more likely, it confirmed pessimism about Biden’s ability to rouse a movement to an already depressed position.
His final and historic withdrawal from the race and rallying around Kamala Harris changed everything dramatically.
That’s possible in debate, but it’s rarely done. Contests are usually exercises to check bias. “For people who are already fairly sure which candidate they support, debates can help solidify or strengthen their options,” writes Dr. Conor Doering, a political science professor at the University at Buffalo. Yes, this is what we usually get from them.
But this year’s battle has had more than a few previous results.
gubernatorial election
Last week’s debate between McCormick and Brown was one of them. As an objective observer, you should be able to tell a few things. McCormick had a good understanding of the details of the job. She was better prepared for anticipated questions and was confident in her statement from start to finish.
Brown gave a lackluster performance at best, raising more questions than answers. I first wrote about it last October, when Republicans were running a nonsensical campaign for governor. This is the third time I have reminded Hoosiers of that sad truth.
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I watched the gubernatorial election and subsequent governing strategies, and they seemed designed around a kind of “never make a mistake” game plan. Former Governor Evan Bayh was passionate about this strategy, and it served him well. Former Gov. Mike Pence was committed to that, too, but made some serious and damaging mistakes during his one term in office.
Mr. Brown’s biggest failure last week was comparable to Mr. Biden’s June mistake, although clearly on a much smaller scale. He seemed unprepared for the expected questions and his lack of sharpness made him look old, but so far he has largely avoided that criticism. His failure to answer certain questions made it abundantly clear to me that he was not going to defend the recent statements of Vice Presidential candidate and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith.
vice presidential contest
That brought me to the October 1st vice presidential debate between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz. The fight was almost bizarre, to use Waltz’s favorite phrase, and they were incredibly polite to each other. Waltz was nervous and made several disgusting miscommunications. Vance deftly and comfortably delivered content that was a fact-checker’s dream. Again, if truth-telling isn’t important, I have to say that to an objective viewer it looked like Vance “won.”
However, something interesting happened in the poll after the debate. Many viewers had the same view as me.
Waltz’s favorability rating has increased over Vance’s. Huh? The conclusion was that his everyman character was strengthened by his lack of comfort in his environment. So did he lose and win, or was this real practice in a contest with no prizes?
I have never thought that the best debater is always the same title or talent as the best leader. If that were the case, I know litigators who would slam everyone mentioned in this column like a gigantic bass drum being dragged around by Purdue’s marching band.
However, I believe that conversation is the best way to get to know a person. This belief drives my teaching philosophy for public speaking students. I want them to connect with their audience so that after the show is over, the audience understands more about them than just the topic.
With that goal in mind, this year’s discussions were great.
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