“A book that is part history, part memoir, part advocacy and part apologia. Minow, an early organizer of the televised debates and the current vice chairman of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, is the debates’ greatest champion and most clear-eyed critic. … Minow’s perspectives are peerless, and the timeliness and importance of the topic make for worthwhile reading.”—Publishers Weekly
“Newton Minow is the father of televised presidential debates, the most important new political institution of the last half century. From his memo to Adlai Stevenson first suggesting the idea in 1955 to his sensible proposals for new formats in 2008, he has stood at the center of the ‘debate over debates,’ casting a cool eye on the medium and on the democratic process he has done so much to shape. This book tells that compelling story with wit, verve, and penetrating insight.”—Jonathan Alter
“There may be no one alive who cares more about America’s democracy than Newton Minow, who was there at the creation of the modern political debate. The riveting first-person stories he and Craig LaMay tell of debates in one election after another take us to the heart of American political life and argue for a continued central role for debates in our electoral process. Their book is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how to ensure that comes about.”—Judy Woodruff
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An excerpt from Inside the Presidential Debates: Their Improbable Past and Promising Future
Memorable Moments
from Presidential Debates
The presidential debates are intended to be a forum to discuss the issues of the day—matters of substance. But just as candidates are personalities as well as ideas, a debate can turn on a smaller bit of style or inattention. In the list that follows are some of those notable defining moments in which a candidate makes a gaffe or turns a rhetorical flourish, and that single moment—rather than the broader and more complex features of the debate or the discussion of the issues—becomes the whole story.
Nixon sweats
The first televised presidential debate took place in Chicago on September 26, 1960. Vice President Richard Nixon, recovering from the flu, looked pale and sweaty. His Democratic opponent, Senator John F. Kennedy, had just come from campaigning in California and looked tanned and vital. Listeners to the radio broadcast thought Nixon won the debate, but television viewers gave the win to Kennedy.
Ford’s blunder
In the second debate between President Gerald Ford and challenger Jimmy Carter in October 1976, Ford said that “Poland is no longer under communist domination.” The audience gasped, and the remark became the big news of the debate, if not the big news of the entire 1976 debate series.
The Reagan moment
In a 1980 Republican New Hampshire primary debate, the expenses of which were paid by candidate Ronald Reagan, the moderator tried to prevent Reagan from making an opening announcement by asking that Reagan’s mike be cut off. Reagan retorted, “I am paying for this microphone!” The incident helped solidify Reagan’s public image as firm and decisive and marked the beginning of his rise in the national polls. Reagan would later say: “I may have won the debate, the primary—and the nomination—right there.”
I knew Jack
In the 1988 vice-presidential debate, held in Omaha on October 5, Senator Lloyd Bentsen delivered what are probably the most famous lines in the history of presidential debates. Bentsen was facing fellow Senator Dan Quayle, whose relative youth had become an issue in the campaign. In an answer defending his qualifications, Quayle stated that he had as much Congressional experience as John Kennedy had when he was running for president. Bentsen’s reply: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
And time watches you
The second debate between President George H. W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton was a town hall event on October 15, 1992. As the moderator fielded a question from the audience, the president looked at his watch, apparently impatient for the evening to end. The action suggested that Bush was distant and out of touch with ordinary people.
A sigh is not just a sigh
In the first presidential debate of the 2000 election, Vice President Al Gore audibly and repeatedly sighed while the Republican candidate George W. Bush responded to questions. Those sighs captured as much attention from commentators as the substance of the debate and left the impression that Gore was disrespectful and condescending.
The presidential scowl
Similarly, after the first debate between President Bush and Senator John Kerry on September 30, 2004, coverage focused on Bush’s apparent annoyance with Kerry and numerous scowls and negative facial expressions. Bush referred to the criticism in their second debate, joking at one point about one of Kerry’s remarks, “That answer made me want to scowl.”
More
The Commission on Presidential Debates has an extensive collection of information on presidential and other debates from 1858 to the present, including transcripts of debates since 1960. Video is available from the Commisssion upon request.
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Copyright notice: Text material ©2008 by the University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press.
Newton N. Minow and Craig L. LaMay
Inside the Presidential Debates: Their Improbable Past and Promising Future
Foreword by Vartan Gregorian
©2008, 238 pages, 31 tables
Cloth $22.50 ISBN: 978-0-226-53041-3 (ISBN-10: 0-226-53041-8)
For information on purchasing the book—from bookstores or here online—please go to the webpage for Inside the Presidential Debates.
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