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Nixon's Sweaty Debate

Presidential debates have been happening in America now for centuries, they were famously bought to screen in the 1960 election with a young and charismatic John F Kennedy debating Richard Nixon. Kennedy won that debate because he was cool, collected and at ease conversely Nixon failed because he sweated a lot and wasn't comfortable in front of the camera. although radio viewers said Nixon won but TV viewers judged that JFK won. Kennedy really took to new technology and was great in front of the camera and went on to win that election and to create Camelot. 

Since the start of televised debates their have been moments of controversy from George HW Bush checking his watch to Trump telling Clinton if he was in power she would be in jail. 

The Presidential debate is an institution in the states now and wannabe Presidents have been grilled in front of the American electorate, and an independent commission manages them. Since the election of 2010 debates have started happening in the UK albeit in a very chaotic way. The first debate of its kind was between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg the main catch line from that debate was I agree with Nick. 

The debates in the UK haven't really caught the imagination like they do in the states for the last four elections politicians and the news agencies haven't come up with a clear and refined show format and can end up in a on overcrowded playing field with seven political parties on stage at once and even hamstrung for example leaders getting interviewed on the same night but at different points. 

Staying on this side of the pond political leaders have also dodged making appearances on debates for example in 2017 Theresa May sent Amber Rudd who had just lost a relative in her place and Boris Johnson missed a television debate on channel four and was empty chaired in the last election.

Fast forward to 2020 and the Biden v Trump debate was universally regarded as a disaster with both interrupting each other. The Vice presidential debate was a bit more civilized and actually looked like a proper debate however the strict timing rules stymied any proper conversation. Ultimately debates are political theater but they are vital to democracy

I enjoy political debates, seeing two people coming together to argue their case and make counter arguments are the pillars of democracy but we need to uphold civility as we do it. constant interrupting as we saw from the Trump v Biden debates will be totally reductive and will put people off of politics in the long run. Trust in politics and politicians in the last few decades has been in an abyss more so since the expenses scandal politics needs to do better! 

So what are the future for debates for a start any one wanting to become Prime Minster should have to attend debates of they should be disqualified in addition we need to create longer debates in the last Labour leadership election candidates were only allowed forty seconds and in the presidential events they were only allowed two minuets for rebuttals you can't get complex policy out in a short amount of time. we also need more of them they shouldn't just be for elections. Debates also need to be kinder Brexit has opened a Pandora's box of negative conversations and political discussion was damaged by toxic arguments.







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