October 2004
Thursday 14 October
- Boo (08:49) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation What an abhorrent, insulting, incoherent and, most of all, disingenuous performance last night by the two presidential candidates. I literally wanted to stand up in my family room and boo so loudly they could hear me in Tempe. Did you notice how when the two candidates gave their closing statements, all of a sudden their language, physical demeanor, and tone became “presidential”? And yet all...
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- Redemption or Renaissance? (08:48) - Guest: Cole Campbell, Dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada - Reno In between the second and third presidential debates, there was a flurry of blogosphere-driven chatter about a suspicious bulge in President Bush's suit coat during the second debate. A photo showing telltale shadows on the president's back was blown up, analyzed, explained away by the White House tailor, speculated about by everyone else drawn to the idea...
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- Falling Apart (08:46) - Guest Matthew Yglesias, Blogger and Staff Writer, The American Propsect To semi-defend our candidates, I think the focus on domestic policy wound up showing us more about the limitations of the debate format than of the two men on the stage. As long as the moderator kept the focus on social issues -- abortion, homosexuality, etc. -- and the fuzzy stuff at the end, both were relatively appealing. I don't find Bush's evangelical worldview appealing,...
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Monday 11 October
- The Right Man, Right Time, Right Place (10:08) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation For me, the second presidential debate sounded almost like a real debate, until I awoke from my slumber and realized what was happening. The two candidates spun their talking points bravely but the campaign – despite people’s interest and engagement across the nation – remains stuck in place for now. But there is an alternate path. Here’s what I mean. The candidates have successfully gotten...
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- Asking How (09:57) - Guest: Jehmu Greene, President, Rock The Vote I thought one of the most interesting aspects of the debate was the way its as-yet-undecided audience of voters made themselves, and their issues, heard. They weren’t timid, apathetic, or wishy-washy. They were concerned, committed, and intelligent. I think the debate served to remind us that the undecided populace in this election aren’t necessarily “few,” and that their interests and their votes certainly can’t be discounted. Rich has...
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- Surviving the Game (09:33) - Guest: Rita Kirk, Chair of the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Program, Southern Methodist University I had an interesting opportunity last Friday night. Rather than watching the debate on television, I listened on XM Radio as I traveled. My sixteen year old son and I had a great opportunity to listen, free from visual distractions and to interpret meaning based solely on verbal expression. In many ways, I felt like a part of that mythic...
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- Water, Water Everywhere (09:18) - Guest: Cole Campbell, Dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada - Reno There are others beyond themselves that the candidates probably would need to trust in order for them to follow the admirable path that Rich suggests. Take my professional domain: the news media. Journalist Matt Bai discusses John Kerry’s reluctance to spell out his nuanced approach to foreign policy in the post-9/11 world in Bai’s cover story in Sunday’s...
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Wednesday 6 October
- Truth, Ambiguity & the Pursuit of Leadership (13:13) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation As I watched last night’s vice-presidential debate it was enormously revealing about the fundamental challenge Americans confront in this election: which truth to believe. Both candidates, both campaigns, and voters on all sides have talked passionately about the “distortions” in this campaign. There are too many to count. But the argument over these distortions fails to pinpoint our real dilemma. After the first presidential debate...
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- Of Truth and Fiction (13:08) - Guest: Jehmu Greene, President, Rock The Vote These days, it’s a given that there are elements of truth and fiction on both sides of any issue. Campaigns often exploit these ambiguities both to idealize their candidates and lampoon their opponents. But this is not the kind of debate the people of America, and especially the young people of America, need or want. Young voters (18-30 years old) aren’t as set in their ways politically as...
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- Hunched Shoulders, Fluttering Eyelids (13:07) - Guest: Cole Campbell, Dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada - Reno Rich's notion that we have to sort through competing sets of facts, or facts that don't quite add up to a coherent whole, is an important insight into political life. In the case of the vice presidential debate, it's also a bit of making lemonade out of lemons. In strong constrast to the first presidential debate, which was...
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Friday 1 October
- The Real Debate (20:57) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation The pundits were proven wrong, the candidates did engage, and the people won. Now we have a genuine race and a clear choice. What was so evident to me last night was a clash in narratives between certitude and competence. President Bush offered the candidacy of certitude. Throughout the debate, he consistently used words and phrases such as: “liberty, tyranny, freedom, precious, change the world,...
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- Young and Strong - But Ignored (20:48) - Guest: Jehmu Greene, President, Rock The Vote The candidates were clear and forthright on many fronts, and their differing policies with regard to the arenas of homeland security and foreign policy have been highlighted well enough, except for one area: the impact of war on the young people of America. President Bush promised an “all-volunteer army,” while Senator Kerry briefly mentioned a “backdoor draft taking place in America today.” They told anecdotes about devastated parents...
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- A Sigh of Relief (18:48) - Guest: Veronica De La Garza, Executive Director, Youth Vote Coalition I was hoping for the best but expected the worst. It started on Wednesday night. A friend called me to say that he had just seen WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote wrestlers on Hardball and they were amazing. He could not believe how articulate and passionate they were when discussing politics and debating on issues of concern to young people. Hmmm…..I started flipping through CNN and...
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- Beyond the Soundbite (13:31) - Guest: Rita Kirk, Chair of the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Program, Southern Methodist University The first presidential debate is always the most important one. After that, viewership typically falls off by about ten million viewers. After watching last night’s debate, I wonder if that data will hold true. At long last, a presidential debate was not so much about a winner and a loser as it was about differing choices – although the pollsters... | 216 Trackbacks
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- A Clash of Messages (11:47) - Guest: Cole Campbell, Dean of the Donald W. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada - Reno Nowadays, "staying on message" is the touchstone of political discourse for presidential candidates. Both George Bush and John Kerry excelled at staying planted on their messages in the first presidential debate Thursday night. I agree with Rich that, in this case, staying on message helped crystallize the choice offered by the two candidates. Neither candidate assailed the other... | 194 Trackbacks
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