BETWEEN THE LINES: A Real Look At Candidates

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

With election day a little more than a month away, even the most distracted among us should be pulled into the electoral process. This week’s first presidential debate should do it.

This is the opportunity to hear something other than scripted speeches and paid advertising from both President Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, their supporters or foes.

That is not to say the responses from the candidates won’t be practiced. Both the president and Romney have been holed away somewhere practicing responses to questions and situations they can anticipate will be part of this initial debate. But the responses still must be spontaneous and the candidates don’t know the precise questions nor what their opponents might answer.

The first debate will be held tonight in Denver and aired on major networks and cable news outlets at 8 p.m. CST. Jim Lehrer of PBS is the host for the debate, which will include segments on the economy, health care, governing and the role of government. Whatever transpires should breathe new energy into the campaigns of both men.

Granted, in Arkansas, we haven’t seen much of anything from either candidate. Whatever we hear comes through national news and the generic campaigns.

The presumption is Republican Romney, mostly by virtue of not being Democrat Obama, is so strongly favored in Arkansas that neither presidential campaign will spend much time or money trying to sway voters in this state.

We’re seeing some effort to burden Arkansas Democrats running for state legislative seats by tying them to Obama; but that’s coming from peoplerying to elect Republicans to the state Legislature, not the Romney campaign. There has been precious little direct contact from either the Obama or Romney campaigns with Arkansas voters. What we get is what the national audience sees.

Certainly, the national nominating conventions of both the Democrats and Republicans didn’t help much. They were what all such conventions have become: rallying events for the partisans who should all now be back home whipping up the faithful. The few of us who claim to be independent voters and watched both conventions were far outnumbered by those listening to hear what they wanted to hear from candidates they already supported.

The start of the debate season should change the dynamics a bit. It is now that the truly independent voters will be getting more interested, deciding which way they will vote or if they will vote at all.

Debates are the forum in which candidates speak directly to voters. The candidates in the debate setting don’t benefit from the polish that their own campaigns put on their image-building advertising. Not do they suffer from the abuse their opponents fling at them in the negative messages that proliferate

on the airwaves. For the most part, there is nothing between the candidates and the audience but their own words, their own explanations of where they stand.

Although voters have other opportunities to gather factual information about the respective candidates, these relatively short debates offer condensed exposure to

the candidates’ views on a variety of issues. Plus, in the days immediately following a debate, political fact checkers will debunk anything espoused by a candidate straying from the facts.

So, consider this an encouragement to watch the debates, record them to watch later or find them online at a more convenient time. You might learn something aside from whatever you think you know about Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.