 "Photo: Brian Borger / Heights Photo")
Not until very recently in the nation's history have political debates become influential factors in the outcomes of certain elections, said O'Donnell. It was not until 1960 in the presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy that the first presidential debate was held between major party candidates.
O'Donnell said political debates, along with the declaration of the vice president and party's national convention, are the deciding factors in any presidential election.
"Political debate has become an important if not requisite part of American life, and they do have the ability to shape the immediacy of a race," he said, citing the fact that in 2004, John Kerry's popularity rose 4 percent immediately following the first debate.
Political debates allow the public to develop its own perceptions of candidates, regardless of what party with which they are affiliated. Candidates show a more vulnerable side during debates, he said, as a result of the contentious atmosphere of questioning. Whether it is beneficial or not, the public actually knows nearly 30 percent more about a candidate than they did prior to the debate.
Presidential debates, however, function more like joint press conferences with occasional clashes of ideas, said O'Donnell. He attributes this to the effect of the media, and he said that debates "tend to be shaped by the media because candidates have little say for how they will be covered."
Entering into presidential debates is incredibly risky due to the fact that television networks are reluctant to acquiesce to the candidate's requests. More often than not, networks will shape the format to abide by how they want to interpret the outcome.
In the 2004 debates, both the Bush and Kerry parties agreed to eliminate the split-screen reaction shots of the opposing candidates, said O'Donnell. Once the debates aired, nearly all networks did not heed to these requests.
Post-debate, the media also pays too much attention to the "winners" and "losers," not to the issues actually covered, said O'Donnell. This can be extremely detrimental to either party since after the first debate, the public usually develops a strong opinion about the candidate they support. In 2004, Bush had to bounce back from a relatively poor performance in the first debate. (O'Donnell credits this to Bush's nerves and reluctance to listen to his coach's instructions, to which he said, "He started listening to us after the first debate.")
As director of debate in a presidential campaign, it is O'Donnell's job to prepare for such spontaneous formatting and questioning, and to coach the candidate in image and charisma. This task can be extremely arduous, especially when coaching a presidential candidate is "much like coaching a novice debater," said O'Donnell. Due to the many distractions of the campaign itself and the stress of having to worry about governing the country, Bush was a difficult pupil to break in. O'Donnell said he began the process of directing the 2004 debates by first viewing thousands of hours of footage from debates of years past and creating an overall mix of outstanding and poor examples for the president to evaluate.
This "Best of and Worst of" video focused on strong and weak sound-bites from previous presidential candidates such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Bush himself. O'Donnell said that campaign committees will spend enormous amounts of time creating clever sound-bites for the debaters to utilize at their leisure to capture attention or distract from a question and move to a topic that they want to discuss. In 2004, Bush actually had two subcommittees designated to coin such sound-bites.
In an attempt to address every possible issue that may appear in the debates, a briefing book is developed with certain talking points and facts to fully prepare the candidate. O'Donnell, however, said, "It's not possible for any candidate to answer every question."
Because Bush was simultaneously governing the nation and campaigning, it was more difficult for him to prepare the debates, he said. O'Donnell narrowed the briefing book down into 40 general topics that could possibly cover every question. In addition, he tried to make all the debates centered on a certain theme. This task proved to be relatively easy in 2004 since the debate topics were controlled, based on either foreign or domestic policy.
After studying the briefing book, O'Donnell put Bush through extensive practice. Former governor of New Hampshire, Judd Greg, was even recruited to play the part of John Kerry in the faux debates.
Bush was drilled on questions that could possibly be addressed. O'Donnell said that there are only two types of questions in any presidential debate: issue-based questions that illustrate a candidate's specific stance on an issue and process questions that show more generally how a candidate thinks. Many believe that a candidate's standpoint on various issues is the underlying, important theme in all debates. O'Donnell, however, said he tried to make sure Bush was well-voiced in responding to process questions as well - they can reveal to the public more abstract, personal characteristics about a candidate.
"In a debate, it's better for you to be on the offense rather than the defense," said O'Donnell. At the end of every response, he said, after a candidate gets to speak, they should throw out an attack so when the next question occurs, the opposing candidate feels compelled to counter it before proceeding to answer the directed question. O'Donnell was very pleased with Bush's use of this tactic in 2004, stating that Kerry had to refute Bush several times before even beginning to address his question during the third debate.
At the conclusion of the lecture, O'Donnell said that even if the formats for debates are unfair or skewed, it is still up to the American people to evaluate and pick the appropriate candidate. Hopefully, he said, after understanding the onerous logistics behind preparing for presidential debates, the public will better be able to judge the candidates and cast their ballots.
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