President Biden and former President Trump debated on Thursday night. (Getty Images)
"They brought us whole binders full of women," said 2012 Republican nominee and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) at one of that year’s debates with former President Obama.
2016 Democratic nominee and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was in the middle of saying something about the Social Security Trust Fund in a debate with Mr. Trump when he fired off this volley.
"Such a nasty woman," sneered the former President.
Debates also amplify on-screen gaffes.
"There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe," said President Gerald Ford in a debate with future President Jimmy Carter in 1976.
The remark shocked the press corps.
And Cold War Eastern Europe.
However, debates sometimes deliver unexpected humor.
"I’m all ears!" bragged 1992 independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot at a debate with future President Bill Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush.
Perot drew attention to his own features – which stuck out like two taxicab doors, attached to a crew cut.
UNDER THE DOME AND ON THE DIAMOND
Sometimes what’s said isn’t even what most people remember. People easily recall the visual of former President Trump, lurking and then creeping onto the screen behind Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Sometimes viewers recall what a candidate does during the debate.
Former Vice President and 2000 Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore is remembered for his theatrical sighs of exasperation at various orations from future President George W. Bush.
And then there was Bush 41 in 1992 with Bill Clinton and Perot. All three candidates briefly rested against stools as ABC News Anchor and debate moderator Carole Simpson addressed the audience.
The elder Bush slipped a glance at his wristwatch.
Viewers interpreted that presidential peek as a subliminal cue that Mr. Bush’s time in office was up after one term.
The debate between President Biden and former President Trump marked a sea change in the way American voters experience the forum. Both campaigns worked directly with CNN to develop the debate. It’s the first major alteration to debates since 1988. The campaigns cut the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) out of the action this time.
Otherwise, each of the 33 Presidential or Vice-Presidential debates since 1988 has been under the aegis of the Commission. The CPD created the town hall format where average citizens could pose questions directly to the candidates.
That’s how Illinois power plant worker Ken Bone and his red sweater rose to prominence for a hot second after the 2016 town hall debate.
Former President Donald Trump at the first Presidential Debate at CNN Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, United States on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The debate between President Biden and former President Trump was the first without a studio audience since the initial forum in 1960. It was unclear whether future President John F. Kennedy or future President Richard Nixon won that contest.
Nixon sweated. He sported a five-o-clock shadow. Nixon’s knee smarted after he banged it getting out of the limousine arriving at the debate.
Meantime, Kennedy appeared cool and confident.
It’s said that those listening to the radio believed Nixon won. But people watching TV thought Kennedy prevailed.
But that’s debate folklore – even though publishers have printed that chestnut in every American political science textbook for decades.
I challenge you to locate the study or survey which proves the alleged Nixon/Radio versus Kennedy/TV thesis.
But, that old saw goes to show the importance of grasping the complexities of television – compared to raw debate, say on the radio.
And that’s something else the merging of television and politics provides.
"It's all in pursuit of the audience," said Podrazik.
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And that’s a universal interest between media and politicians.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
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