I had my journalism students at Rocky Mountain College watch last week's Burns-Tester debate and write a brief story about it. When I asked for a show of hands on who they thought won the debate, they favored Tester by about 4-1.
Bear in mind: This is a group of busy college students. None had seen any of the other debates and none has followed the race closely (on a recent editing quiz, no one caught the error in this phrase: U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, D-Mont.). Their responses to the debate seemed to be based less on the candidates' positions than on how they answered questions and stated their positions.
I don't know that any of that means anything, but I thought the edge the students gave to Tester was striking. I've seen three of the debates and rated them all roughly as draws.
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5 comments:
ROUGHLY DRAWS?? Dave, glad you're not teaching DEBATE! Just an observation on my party, but I find it striking!
Your pal,
LK
David, they'll grow out of it.
I admit that I voted for Jimmy Carter, and I turned out OK.
Eric, I don't think so. I really don't think their opinions had much at all to do with the political message. I think it was all about presentation.
Perhaps it went a bit further than presentation David. Young folks soak in a bit more than we often give them credit for.
Perhaps they could tell one was on the run? Perhps they could tell that only one of them was being honest with them? Perhaps they could tell that one was just spouting talking points, while the other one was actually talking from the heart?
I look forward to seeing you all at tonites debate.
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