Presidential and Vice-Presidential Debates
For most of the 18th century in the United States, debates did not play a role in political elections because the public and newspapers frowned upon any campaigning or direct appeal for votes (CNN.com, 1996). In those days, candidates relied on newspapers, pamphlets and an occasional public meeting to explain their positions to the public, primarily because the public expected candidates to reserve their energies for the task of government (CNN.com, 1996). Today, on the other hand, presidential and vice-presidential candidates essentially conduct a public job interview for as long as one year before the election. And the public debate has become a central and perhaps even deciding factor in some presidential elections.
Presidential debates are a modern television age creation (CNN.com, 1996). Before their advent, the senatorial debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858 was considered the most significant debate of pre-broadcast elections. According to communications expert Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the debate was orderly and closely attended and both candidates were serious and articulate and addressed themselves to certain political concerns. Jamieson maintains that the debate advanced the issues, illuminating the areas of both agreement and disagreement between the two candidates (CNN.com, 1996). However, the nominees of the two major parties did not debate until 1960, when Republican Vice President Richard Nixon
faced John Kennedy, the junior Democratic Senator from Massachusetts (CNN.com, 1996).
Still, although the 1960 debates were popular with the public and were broadcast nationally on network television, a presidential debate did not re-occur until 1976, due largely to incumbents' refusal to debate and federal communications laws that required equal time for all presidential candidates, even minor ones (CNN.com, 1996). Nonetheless, by 1976, Waterga...