Look into the camera, mate

At first, Richard Nixon vowed he would not debate John Kennedy. He had little to gain from such an encounter...

At first, Richard Nixon vowed he would not debate John Kennedy. He had little to gain from such an encounter, and much to lose. As vice-president, he was better known than the young senator and universally considered a heavyweight. But in the end his fear of appearing fearful overcame his caution. It was a mistake. The camera is unkind to men who look shifty.

At the first debate in 1960, Nixon was not feeling well. After hearing Kennedy turn down the offer of make-up, he turned it down too, though it might have covered his five o8217;clock shadow. Kennedy got his aides to apply make-up when Nixon wasn8217;t looking, and presented a tanned and handsome face to the nation. Nixon looked like a sweaty corpse. Radio listeners thought he did well. But on television, Kennedy won by a mile.

Most Americans never see presidential candidates in the flesh. For many, the televised debates are their only chance to watch them up close and more or less unscripted. They can observe how their would-be leaders think on their feet and cope with huge pressure. These are useful skills for a president.

Kennedy thought he debated his way into the White House, and he was probably right. In their book Inside the Presidential Debates, Newton Minow and Craig LaMay point out that 44 per cent of Americans said the Nixon-Kennedy debates had influenced their vote, while 5 per cent said they based their choice on nothing else. Other debates have mattered, too. In 1980, when voters were weary of Jimmy Carter but worried that his challenger might be an extremist, Ronald Reagan8217;s amiable performance reassured them. And in 2000, when George Bush8217;s winning margin was so microscopic that anything might have tipped the result, Al Gore8217;s sighs during the first debate surely cost him.

What can today8217;s candidates learn from past debates? Some of the most important lessons, alas, are also the most superficial. Appearances matter. Barack Obama, like Kennedy, is easy on the eye. John McCain, though he was hot stuff in his youth, now looks craggy. When they stand side by side, people notice that Obama towers over his rival. There is little McCain can do about his looks, but he could try to control his body language better. At his first face-to-face debate with Obama on September 26, he refused to look his opponent in the face, which made him seem crotchety and disrespectful.

Besides looking presidential, a candidate must avoid gaffes. In 1976, Gerald Ford denied that Poland was dominated by the Soviet Union. In 1980, Jimmy Carter said he asked his 13-year-old daughter what the most important issue facing the nation was. She said nuclear weapons. Voters concluded that one man was blind and the other needed more mature advisers. Both lost.

So far this year, no candidate has committed a fatal howler, but there have been several slips. McCain said that earmarks lawmakers8217; pet projects had tripled in the past five years, when their value has fallen. Obama looked at his wrist to remind himself of the name of the fallen American soldier whose bracelet he wears.

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Every debater secretly yearns to be Abraham Lincoln, who spoke brilliantly about issues that still seem important a century and a half later. Stephen Douglas, his rival in 1858 for a Senate seat now occupied by Obama, said Lincoln was two-faced and he retorted: 8220;If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?8221;

1976:

Polls released after the first Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford debate indicated the race was even. However, in the second debate on foreign policy, Ford made a major blunder on Soviet domination in Polland. Carter won a close election.

1980:

Before they headed for the TV studios, Ronald Reagan had a slender lead over Jimmy Carter. But in the end, Reagan8217;s years of experience in front of a camera as an actor came in handy. He won by a wide margin and the election with a landslide victory.

1992:

This was the first debate with a third-party candidate. Billionaire Ross Perot vs President George H. W. Bush vs Governor Bill Clinton. First, President Bush drew flak for hesitating to join the debates. Then, he was also criticised for looking at his watch during the debate. Clinton won.

2008 debate: Obama vs McCain

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Debate 1: The closest of the three. A day after the debate, both campaigns declared victory. But various snap polls taken on the night of the debate gave Obama the edge.

Debate 2: John McCain tried his best, hammering away at his opponent but none of his blows hit Obama. Polls gave Obama an advantage.

Debate 3: Instant polls by CBS and CNN found that most voters believed Obama won the debate but McCain8217;s campaign staff insisted that he had changed the trajectory in the final round.