It’s the climax of practically every election movie: the big debate scene, in which an underdog trailing in the polls scores major points against his stuffy opponent through oratory. Who can forget Robert Redford as liberal neophyte Bill McKay going off script about poverty and race while battling rival Crocker Jarmon in “The Candidate”? Or Warren Beatty in “Bulworth,” playing a rap-happy senator bringing class warfare to the debate process by summing it up as “pretty rich guys here, getting paid by some really rich guys to ask a couple of other rich guys questions about their campaigns.”
Of course, no movie is as exciting as the real deal. And when the 2008 presidential candidates hold their first face-off next Friday night, it might break the all-time record set by the Jimmy Carter-Ronald Reagan debate, which drew more than 80 million viewers back in 1980. If you’ve wanted to check out that chic new restaurant in town, go on Sept. 26 — eateries, multiplexes and bars will likely be as desolate as the Painted Desert, with folks staying home to watch John McCain and Barack Obama duke it out in their initial mano a mano contest.
Cracking 80 million viewers, however, will rely heavily on real-time streaming of the event on the Internet.
“The debates will be watched more widely on the Web than ever before,” predicted Alan Schroeder, a former Boston television producer and current associate professor at Northeastern University. He’s the author of “Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV.”
Schroeder believes intense scrutiny of debates over the years, as well as new technologies, have changed the rules considerably. For instance, he noted, in today’s environment of nonstop cable news, political blogs and YouTube, debaters have to realize their best snappy lines or comebacks will be played and replayed for days.
“The debates will be heavily excerpted and, for many people who aren’t inclined to watch the whole thing, those one or two excerpts will overtake the entire program,” he said. Still, “manufactured moments” frequently play out as just plain corny — or even cringe-inducing — if they feel too scripted. (Remember Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “that’s change you can Xerox” clunker during the primaries?)
In addition, silent moments can be even more revealing than talking points. Longtime habits and nervous tics such as Obama’s incessant scrawling on legal pads or McCain’s fiddling with his wedding ring could grate on viewers. After all, there’s no such thing as “off-camera” anymore, as President Bush found out the hard way when he was caught visibly smirking during his 2004 debate with John F. Kerry. He, of all people, should have known better; more than a decade earlier, his father was seen, and chided for, checking his watch out of sheer boredom while Bill Clinton pontificated.
“The best response is to operate under the assumption that you’re being filmed at all times,” advised Schroeder. “The networks have feeds of all the different cameras, and they have the ability to create whatever version of the debate they want to — including split screens.” Clinton, in fact, practiced reaction shots before his 1992 debate with Bush so he would feel comfortable and at ease when he wasn’t in control of the microphone.
Last weekend, Variety suggested a new technology could further impact this year’s debate: high-definition television. Indeed, HDTV “could expose every blemish, every wrinkle, every gray hair to a national audience,” said the show business trade paper. The Consumer Electronics Association estimated HDTV penetration at one-third of all U.S. households last year.
After discussing debate technique, theory and history with Schroeder, we asked him to run down his list of the most memorable political parleys of the past half-century:
1. Lloyd Bentsen vs. Dan Quayle, 1988: This was notable for perhaps the most quoted line ever from a debate, in which Bentsen told Quayle that he was “no Jack Kennedy.”
2. Richard Nixon vs. John F. Kennedy, 1960: Nixon appeared so sweaty and gaunt opposite Kennedy that he soon started drinking milkshakes every day to put on some weight.
3. Gerald Ford vs. Jimmy Carter, 1976: The audio equipment went dead, and both candidates stood quietly in place for nearly a half-hour, looking like a couple of broken robots.
4. Ronald Reagan vs. Walter Mondale, 1984: Reagan went awry in his first debate, appearing dazed and self-admittedly “confused,” only to rebound two weeks later with his joke about not exploiting his opponent’s “youth and inexperience” for political gain.
5. Michael Dukakis vs. George H.W. Bush, 1988: After moderator Bernard Shaw asked Dukakis what he would do if his wife were brutally raped and murdered, the candidate responded calmly that he disdained capital punishment.
6. George H.W. Bush vs. Bill Clinton, 1992: At the first town-hall-style debate, the seemingly bored Bush checked his watch. Meanwhile, Clinton connected so well with the crowd that he walked out to the edge of the stage to bond with them.
7. Al Gore vs. George W. Bush, 2000: Gore sighed audibly and was caught rolling his eyes when his rival answered questions, exuding a condescension that did not play well on camera.
8. John F. Kerry vs. George W. Bush, 2004: In a role reversal, it was Bush who acted goofy when he thought he was off-screen, making faces and slumping in his seat. During a follow-up debate, Kerry mentioned Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter, an off-putting reference that helped to turn the tide against him.
9. James Stockdale vs. Al Gore vs. Dan Quayle, 1998: Stockdale, running mate of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, shocked viewers when he introduced himself by asking, “Who am I? Why am I here?” then went fuzzy for the rest of the evening after his hearing aid malfunctioned.
10. Geraldine Ferraro vs. George H.W. Bush, 1984: In the first televised vice presidential debate, Ferraro accused Bush of acting patronizing when they discussed foreign policy. You can bet Joe Biden’s prep team will screen this one repeatedly before sending him off to face Sarah Palin.
Odds and Ends
If you decide to catch a movie this weekend, Hollywood Politico recommends the new theatrical film “Flow: For Love of Water,” an enviro-doc that does for the worldwide water crisis what Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” did for global warming. The New York Times raved about the picture, calling it “less depressing than galvanizing” as well as “informed and heartfelt.” If you’ve ever wondered what exactly comes out of the tap (or what goes into those plastic bottles), “Flow” is a fluid and informative feature.
On the DVD front, now that the Democratic and Republican conventions are a hazy memory, it’s a blast to settle on the sofa with the (mostly) new animated feature “Chicago 10.” Based on the 1968 Democratic convention fracas that resulted in Vietnam-era radicals and Black Panthers being put on trial for conspiracy and inciting to riot (the number in the title includes their attorneys), the movie features the voice talents of Hank Azaria, Mark Ruffalo, Jeffrey Wright and the late, great Roy Scheider.
We spoke with two people depicted in the film — former Panther leader Bobby Seale and Yippie Party co-founder Paul Krassner — who both were sorry they were not asked to provide the voices for their ’toon alter-egos.
Krassner wrote four scenes in the film but said logistics kept him off-mike. “I think it was really because I don’t sound like myself,” he said slyly.
Seale strongly believed his own timbre should have been taped. “When I met the director, he said he thought I’d be an old man with a shaky voice instead of the way I am, running around like a 19-year-old,” said the 71-year-old Seale. “They should have put me in. Aside from that, the film is a good, necessary piece of human involvement history. It’s important for youth to see it and understand what went down.”
Right on!
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The great, and not-so-great, debaters
By JEFFREY RESSNER | 9/17/08 4:51 AM EDT
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