Stock Speeches Are Out

Unfortunately for me, I missed the presidential debate on Friday because I was in the middle of nowhere, which is located in Wisconsin. However, I did have the opportunity to watch the debate online. What an odd one...

The challenger strategies present in both candidates' talking points were incredibly potent. By opening the debate with a lead question of the current economic status and the proposed bailout was a significant kick-off. It allowed for both candidates to tie in their usual stock speeches as answers. To their advantage, any question about the economy will relate directly to any other issue almost flawlessly. For example, Obama took that question as a catapult into his stock speech module for better health care initiatives, increasing government spending, increasing the taxes on the rich, covering loopholes within the tax system for corporations, and even touching upon the war in Iraq. All of these points he made were simply reiterations of past speeches he has already made. Tim Russert recognized the module by both candidates easily and asked the same question two other times. He wanted to squeeze out a real answer, which was asking the candidates what spending they would cut due to the $700 billion bailout. He finally narrowed it down to McCain cutting spending everywhere except for defense, and Obama cutting spending from the war in Iraq. It was after this first gigantic question that the candidates finally started to withdraw from their usual stock speech modules and answer the questions directly.

Both candidates focused on challenger strategies heavily during the debate. The most used strategy from both was the use of attacking the record. McCain would often recall votes that Senator Obama passed during his career, providing specific numbers and naming particular legislation. Obama was also guilty of this strategy a few times. However, no candidate would accept the attacks without using the challenger strategy of delegating the attacks to control demagogic rhetoric. Obama said, more than once, "That's not true," while McCain was still talking. To Obama's credit, he was not incredibly forceful with his interjections, looking both strong and professional.

By taking the candidates out of the stock speech modules, the voters can finally get to the marrow of each senator's communication. Russert drew real answers out of the candidates during the debate, which the stock speeches usually leave vague. We are in the general election stage of the campaigns, which means we are looking to gain information. Although media outlets and opinion polls are helpful, we can only determine who we agree with more by obtaining our own information. This is done through the debates. I suggest that the stock speech module is only relevant before debates. After that, they are no longer necessary.