July 4th - Opportunity Missed/ Previewing the Fall Debates
Alan Schroeder, author of published Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV, an informed observer of presidential debates, often in theater where he has absorbed the political atmospherics of the last several Presidential Debates, has written a reasoned analysis on the Columbia University Press Blog , previewing what to expect in fall Commission of Presidential Debate events.
Professor Schroeder weaves his analysis around the missed opportunity for a July 4th debate between McCain and Obama and why the demands of presidential debates are likely to thwart real innovations in the fall. He hints that this years unconventional campaigns had the hope for unconventional debates, but don't hold your breadth.
Schroeder writes:
By traditional metrics, the McCain camp was probably accurate in its assumption of low viewership on the Fourth of July. But the unorthodox nature of this year's presidential campaign challenges that expectation. A holiday debate would undoubtedly have generated a high degree of media hype, drawing an audience unable to resist the lure of live political theater. . .
Click for the full article.
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