The Role of Debates in the U.S. Presidential Elections

Debates and discussions among U.S. presidential candidates have become a completely conventional part of the electoral process. The public belief is that usually the two final candidates chosen by the Democratic and Republican parties engage in face-to-face discussions in the final stages of the electoral battles to convince their supporters that they are the best candidates to lead the country. Typically, the debates occur in two stages. The first stage is when there are multiple candidates and the elections are in their preliminary stages. Various individuals from different parties and factions participate in the competition, and there may be more than one candidate from a single party. The goal of this competition is to establish a candidate to represent the party. In this stage, each of the two major parties conducts its debate sessions independently. In this year's elections, we witnessed competition among several candidates from the Republican Party. For instance, many senators or governors from various states from both parties participated in the preliminary competitions but gradually realized during the campaign debates that public support was not in their favor and thus withdrew from the race. Ultimately, two Democratic candidates (Sanders and Clinton) and three Republican candidates (Kasich, Cruz, and Trump) remained, with only one being selected from each party as the final nominee to compete against the nominee of the opposing party. From this point onward, the debate enters the second stage. The goal of the competitions in the first stage and the use of group debates was to gain voter support in the pre-final stage. Each candidate wanted to show the voting public that they were the best and most deserving person for the upcoming presidential election while also conveying to their party that their qualifications were endorsed by the people, thus increasing their chances of winning the next election. At the same time, each party wanted to select the strongest candidate with the highest level of public support and introduce them as the party's nominee. In fact, after the number of candidates was narrowed down to one, the second stage of competition began, and with the start of this competition, the role and nature of the electoral debate and discussion changed and became more specialized, although in some cases, questions from the first stage may be asked repeatedly. Organizing debates is usually done by a bipartisan joint commission that organizes the debates and sets the dates. This commission also determines the location of the debates, which is usually a university or higher education institution. In recent decades, it has been customary to have three debates between the two presidential candidates and one debate between the two vice presidential candidates. For instance, for the current elections, the debates have been organized as follows: - The first debate on September 26 at Hofstra University, New York - The second debate on October 9 at Washington University in St. Louis - The third debate in October at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas - The vice presidential debate is scheduled for October 4 at Longwood University, Virginia. It is conceivable that there is competition among universities to host the debates. Given the extensive role of media, especially radio and television in the U.S., there is also competition among major national media for conducting the debates. In addition to the communication channel (radio or television), there is competition among various program hosts to mediate and conduct the debates. Ultimately, the bipartisan commission reaches an agreement on this matter and selects individuals. Usually, the strongest radio/television hosts are chosen for this purpose. For example, the hosts for this year's debates have been selected as follows: 1- Lester Holt, NBC Nightly News anchor 2- Martha Raddatz, prominent ABC reporter, and Anderson Cooper from CNN 3- Chris Wallace from Fox News The vice presidential debate will be hosted by Elaine Quijano from CBS. The format of the debates may differ. For instance, the first debate this year between Clinton and Trump is set up in such a way that the moderator divides the time into 15-minute segments, and in each segment, one of the six questions announced a week prior is asked of the candidates. That candidate has only 2 minutes to respond, but if they use less time, they can use the surplus for subsequent answers. After that, candidates address questions raised by the other during their responses, and the moderator tries to maintain a balance of time to keep the discussions deeper and related to the questions. The second debate is more of a general question-and-answer format, with half of the questions posed directly by attendees and the other half by the moderator. Time is divided into two-minute segments, and the moderator has one minute to manage the discussion and transition to the next question. The format of the third debate this year will be similar to the first debate. However, it seems this decision was made due to the social standing and political positioning of the two networks NBC and Fox News, which are positioned in completely opposing poles. The primary goal of the debates is to attract the wavering votes of individuals who have not made their final decision up to two months before the elections. Those who are members of either the Democratic or Republican parties are unlikely to vote for the nominee of the opposing party and probably have made their decision in the two months leading up to the elections. However, it is also possible for an individual to be a member of one party but not vote for that party's nominee. In this current election, individuals like Ted Cruz waited until September 23 to announce their support for their party's nominee, Donald Trump. Another example is President George H.W. Bush, who is a Republican but opposed to Trump. George Bush has stated that he will not vote for Trump. It is unlikely that the opinions of such individuals will change by watching a debate, and other calculations will shape that. However, paying attention to the debates can change the opinion of an ordinary voter, an independent voter, or a young voter participating in elections for the first time. Major news networks, alongside the debate sessions, evaluate and broadcast how the opinions of participants are influenced and changed through various questions that are also broadcast live. Historical debates The debates among candidates in our era are entirely a product of media work, and journalists usually manage them and pose questions to the candidates; however, this was not the case more than 150 years ago. In the 1858 U.S. Senate elections, the debate between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas took place face-to-face and without a moderator. One of the two candidates began the debate with a one-hour speech, then the other candidate delivered a one-hour speech, and then had half an hour to respond to the first speaker. After that, it was the first speaker's turn to respond to the second speaker. In 1860, Lincoln became the Republican nominee and Douglas the Northern Democrats' nominee for the presidency, but their competition did not lead to a debate because they had clarified their positions in the previous debate (in the Senate election six years prior). Among the most important electoral debates is the one between John F. Kennedy (Democrat) and Richard Nixon, who was previously Eisenhower's vice president (Republican). This was the first debate to be broadcast nationally via television programs from the studios of several networks, with a group of journalists managing and mediating the debate. The two had four debates, and interestingly, the first Kennedy-Nixon debate also took place on September 26 (the same day as the Clinton-Trump debate). The 43-year-old Kennedy, a handsome, composed, and cool individual, shone in the television program, and it is said that Nixon appeared nervous and sweaty, creating a negative image of him among viewers; whereas those who listened to the same program on the radio leaned toward Richard Nixon and were not influenced by John Kennedy. Naturally, in our era, with the expansion of technology and the virtual world, internet networks like Facebook and Twitter have significantly changed the methods of influencing audiences, and candidates also use every means available, apart from debates and discussions, to influence voters.