Televised presidential debates and public policy

Abstract

Televised Presidential Debates and Public Policy, 2d ed. Sidney Kraus. Mahwah, NJ, and London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. 323pp. $65.95 hbk., $32.50 pbk. In a new election season replete with candidate debates, it is useful to be reminded that things have not always been this waythat there have been long seasons without debates, that debates have been avoided or cancelled because of fearful strategists, and that wholesale controversy has sometimes raged among journalists and politicians about debate formats, rules, and sponsorship. Sidney Kraus provides just such a reminder. Kraus's work should also convince us that, despite the current ho-hum attitude regarding debates and even campaigns in general, these fixtures of today's political races were hard-fought-for, hard-won, and need care and improvement. Kraus has been our most careful observer of televised Presidential debates since the now mythic Kennedy-Nixon encounter of 1960. He is also a self-confessed lover of the debates. He believes intently that, despite their flaws, the debates-or what passes for debates-provide voters with perhaps their most valuable information source about candidates and their positions. Even in Election 2000, when polls show minimal public attention to the fledgling campaigns and fall turnout may reach another record low, who can doubt that we have already learned more from these encounters than from any other source? Despite his commitment to debates, however, Kraus maintains sufficient scholarly detachment so that his analyses of formats, sponsorship, and rules and his record of nearly three decades of debate observation appear sage and balanced. Kraus, longtime professor of communication at Cleveland State University and sometime chair, has often observed the debates from a privileged seat behind the scenes. He has documented his findings and observations in two edited volumes, The Great Debates: Background, Perspective, Effects (1962) and The Great Debates: Carter vs. Ford, 1976 (1979), as well as in the first edition of this book (1988). The current effort is clearly written and appropriate for university students at all levels. It is risky to abstract an argument from such a detailed book, but the thrust of his text is clear: Given the decline of political parties, the slippage of interest in political campaigns, the increased role of television in political socialization, the preoccupation with horserace coverage, and the limitation of debate formats, these encounters are a good thing anyway. …

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