General Campaign - Debates - Content - PresidentialCampaign2004 -The Messages and Their Analysis - William Benoit

General Campaign

Presidential Debates

What Do Debates Talk About (Content of Debates)?

Functions. Studies on the nature of political messages often look at the frequency of three functions of candidate remarks:

acclaims: self-praise, "I will lower taxes," "I will always tell the truth," "I will preserve Social Security," "You can trust me"

attacks: criticism of opponent, "My opponent will increase the national debt," "My opponent says one thing but does another," "My opponent will serve special interests, not you," "My opponent will reduce the quality of education"

defenses: "The accusation that I will raise taxes is simply false," "My opponent says you cannot trust me: nothing could be farther from the truth"

Together, these kinds of statements can be used by voters like cost-benefit analysis. Acclaims can increase a candidate's benefits, attacks can increase a candidate's costs, and defenses can reduce alleged costs.

In the general presidential debates (1960, 1976-2000) acclaims account for 55% of the statements made by candidates, attacks constitute 35% of their remarks, and defenses are 10% of their utterances. However, the relative proportion of acclaims and attacks has altered over time. In 1960, Nixon and Kennedy used the smallest proportion of acclaims (49%) and the largest amount of attacks (39%). In 2000, Bush and Gore used 74% acclaims and only 24% attacks. There is a statistically significant trend over time with acclaims becoming more common and attacks less common.

Topics. Research also looks at the two topics of campaign messages: policy and character.

policy: government action and problems that could be addressed by government action, "We increase loans for college students," "I propose a flat tax on income," "My opponent wants to risk Social Security in the stock market" "We need a prescription drug benefit"

character: the candidate, personality traits or leadership ability (honesty, courage, compassion), "I care about ordinary people," "My opponent cannot be trusted," "My opponent is wishy-washy"

General presidential debates (1960, 1976-2000) focus more on policy (75%) than on the candidates' character (25%). Unlike functions, there has not been a trend toward more emphasis on one topic over time.

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