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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know

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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant,

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Speaker 1: one of the Panted Girls. It turns out, but do

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Speaker 1: you remember the Panted Girls? Don't you want that song? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Don't you want to? Don't you want to? Something? And

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Speaker 1: they were almost like the fruit of the Loom guys.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that possibly remarried. Yeah, it'd

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Speaker 1: be an interesting uh offspring. That's what goes on in

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Speaker 1: television in my head. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm drinking a

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Speaker 1: fan on Orange. This is why I brought it up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I have one of these couple of times a month.

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Speaker 1: That's my indulgence. That's your indulgence. Well, that's that's my

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Speaker 1: work indulgence. I got you. Okay, that's good. It's good.

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Speaker 1: You gotta separate work life from home, like chuckers, Um,

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Speaker 1: are you happy? I am? Okay? Are you ready to start? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: This canna be a good one, and and it's timely,

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Speaker 1: which is always nice. Yeah, because you know that the

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Speaker 1: um the debates are going on right now. The presidential

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Speaker 1: debates are going on right now. Yeah, the primary debates

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Speaker 1: with the presidential debates. Uh yeah, but they're not official,

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Speaker 1: are they. Well, we'll get to that. I guess, well

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Speaker 1: that was my whole thing. Uh So have you been

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Speaker 1: watching them at all? I've watched a few of the

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Speaker 1: Republican debates. I find it very entertaining and fun to watch.

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Speaker 1: It is a amazing how the horse race is just

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Speaker 1: the best sports metaphor analogy for these debates overall. But

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Speaker 1: not just like a horse race, like the kind of

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Speaker 1: like the tin horses like at the carnivals like that.

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Speaker 1: Because Herman Kane all edged forward with his plan and

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Speaker 1: then um mprs like, have you really heard about this?

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Speaker 1: This nine and nine plan? Let's get into it. Rman

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Speaker 1: Kids just kind of hangs his head and goes back

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Speaker 1: a little bit. Romney is, you know, positioning forward and

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Speaker 1: backward at sure? Um, but the the I was looking

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Speaker 1: on Google News for something to open this up with,

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Speaker 1: and I mean that was about all I came up with.

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Speaker 1: But um, everywhere everywhere you turn, everywhere you look, these

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Speaker 1: are called presidential debates, when in fact they are not

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Speaker 1: presidential debates. They're GOP primary debates, and uh, they're certainly

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Speaker 1: not official presidential debates, which can only be carried out

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Speaker 1: by one group called the Commission for Presidential Debates, which

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Speaker 1: we'll get to the bottom of in this Have you

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Speaker 1: seen the Saturday Night Live skit on the GOP debates

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Speaker 1: thus far? It's pretty good, Like, you know how I

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Speaker 1: feel sorry for like some of these candidates that just

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Speaker 1: are clearly shoved to the outside by the rules and

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Speaker 1: they're like Paul, yeah, loo, Well that was the joke.

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Speaker 1: It showed you know, Romney and then Caine and Perry

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Speaker 1: and I think I think Backman was in there in

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Speaker 1: the main room, and then it showed like a side

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Speaker 1: room where they went to h two other candidates. I

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Speaker 1: can't remember it, maybe so yeah, Santorm, Santorm Huntsman and

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Speaker 1: actually showed Santorm in it in a dance club, and

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Speaker 1: then it showed Ron Paul. And then it showed Ron

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Speaker 1: Paul through like a surveillance camera in the parking deck

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Speaker 1: and he was just standing there in the parking deckline himself.

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Speaker 1: So it is very representative of how these things kind

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Speaker 1: of go down sometimes. It's clear that some of these

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Speaker 1: candidates just like you might as well not even show up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but good from Paul because he does keep showing up

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Speaker 1: no matter what, and they joke about it often. Um.

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Speaker 1: But but the the idea that a candidate cannot be

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Speaker 1: treated fairly in these it's just kind of mind blowing

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Speaker 1: to me. Um. But that's not even the official debates,

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Speaker 1: where it's pretty much like written down that you can

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Speaker 1: mistreat candidates that are Republican or Democrats. And so you're

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Speaker 1: a big debater, you're in debate club. Are you familiar

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Speaker 1: with you were your blazer all the time. We didn't

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Speaker 1: even have that at my school. I don't think we

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Speaker 1: had it at my school any But are you familiar

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Speaker 1: with the history of debates in America? Presidential debates in America?

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Speaker 1: I am, now, are you? Yeah? So what what is

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Speaker 1: it harken back to? Uh? Well, if you want to

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Speaker 1: go back to the beginning, that seems to be where

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Speaker 1: you were leading me. Um. It all sort of started

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Speaker 1: out in eighty eight when a young buck named Abe

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Speaker 1: Lincoln was running for a senator against Stephen Douglas, and

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Speaker 1: he had a little habit of of following Douglas around

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Speaker 1: on the campaign trail. And during his speeches would sort

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Speaker 1: of heckle him from the audience. Yeah, and they're like, well,

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Speaker 1: we might as old debate since you're here, right, And

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Speaker 1: he would also so Douglas was just like, I'm not

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Speaker 1: talking to you, what are you talking about? So Lincoln

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Speaker 1: would also just follow him, stop by stop in in

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Speaker 1: Douglas's wake and be like, oh, you just heard from Douglas.

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Speaker 1: Here's what I think about. Sort of a Rebut so

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Speaker 1: finally Douglas agreed to it, which was pretty groundbreaking. Um.

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Speaker 1: And they had a series of I think like seven debates. Um.

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Speaker 1: It was about the existence of slavery. Douglas was pro

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Speaker 1: divided country, you know, slave states in free states. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And Lincoln was like, this country can't survive like that.

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Speaker 1: And Lincoln lost that election. Um. And actually when he

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Speaker 1: ran for president in eighteen sixty, he didn't debate at all.

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Speaker 1: But that was the beginning of presidential debates. There was

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Speaker 1: no moderator, there was no there's no format other than

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Speaker 1: these two guys standing there debating one another for three hours.

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Speaker 1: There was no TV, there was no Anderson Cooper. But

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Speaker 1: that was the beginning of presidential debates in America. Out

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Speaker 1: of a senate race, no less out of a senate race,

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Speaker 1: and then it was took a long hiatus, fifteen election

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Speaker 1: cycles until nineteen when there was an actual presidential debate

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Speaker 1: on the radio between Republican primary connectors Dewey and Stassin,

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Speaker 1: and that got big ratings. I think you have between

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Speaker 1: forty and eighty million people listen to this, which was

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Speaker 1: over a hot topic of the day, which was communism.

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Speaker 1: Outlong communism, yeah, yeah, certainly not endorsing it. No, it

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Speaker 1: was like, how do you feel about communism, presidential candidate?

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Speaker 1: You like it? Um? And then four years later there's

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Speaker 1: a pretty groundbreaking um debate hosted by the League of

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Speaker 1: Women Voters, who would become huge in debates later on,

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Speaker 1: but this was their first foray and it was a

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Speaker 1: big one. Yeah. I didn't realize how involved they were.

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Speaker 1: Was pretty cool. Yeah, that is cool. Um. They the

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Speaker 1: League of Women Voters in two hosted a televised debate,

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Speaker 1: the first televised debate ever, and it featured all of

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Speaker 1: the candidates in both parties and all parties for president.

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Speaker 1: It's like, uh, what they call that in pro wrestling

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Speaker 1: battle royale? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which is in

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Speaker 1: a cage. I think probably sometimes not always. Um, that's

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Speaker 1: how I pictured this debate though, Yeah, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of a lot of talking and murmuring. It was probably

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Speaker 1: very loud debate, you know. Um, But the League of

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Speaker 1: Women Voters hosted this and then kind of went back

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Speaker 1: out of the limelight again, and debates did as well

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Speaker 1: until the Great Debate, right, big b big gig gig.

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Speaker 1: But how did I get that? Yeah, you're talking about

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Speaker 1: Kennedy Nixon in nineteen sixty and this one was very

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Speaker 1: famous because Nixon was in poor health. He had a

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Speaker 1: staff infection, He's not feeling well. Apparently his gray suit

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Speaker 1: blended into the background, making him look even more wan

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Speaker 1: and Kennedy rolled in there like all sunny California handsome.

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Speaker 1: I just you know, I met up with Marilyn Monroe. Look,

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Speaker 1: and people are like, hey, this guy looks great. Yeah. Um.

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Speaker 1: And it was this is the first time to the

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Speaker 1: two party nominated candidates or nominees um were debated one another,

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Speaker 1: just the two yeah. Um. And it was televised debate

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty and um, yeah, and uh it was the

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Speaker 1: It basically established televised presidential debates as a force to

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Speaker 1: be reckoned with in American politics because a poll of

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Speaker 1: radio listeners, they're just tens and tens of millions of

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Speaker 1: people either listen to it on the radio or watch

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Speaker 1: it on TV. Um and a poll of radio listeners

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Speaker 1: found that a majority thought Nixon one. Uh. A poll

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Speaker 1: of television viewers found that Kennedy one in their opinion. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it was largely because now there were aesthetics involved.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't just you know, talkies, you know, squawking out

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Speaker 1: of a box, like you could see what the person

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Speaker 1: looked like, and if you look terribly like Nixon did,

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Speaker 1: you were going to lose. And this also it led

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Speaker 1: to what maybe your best sentence in the history of

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Speaker 1: your writing here what By the time the twenty century

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Speaker 1: rolled around, they bore about the same resemblance to that

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Speaker 1: first televised debate in nineteen sixty as the game show

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Speaker 1: in the movie The Running Man bears to you bet

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Speaker 1: your life like that. I was delighted. I read that,

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Speaker 1: and it's like all that chuck like that. It's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: But you're right on the money with that. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so um so nineteen sixty changes everything. The great debate

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Speaker 1: that from that point on Um. Probably the thing that

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Speaker 1: changed the most was the public came to expect debates.

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Speaker 1: So now there's pressure on candidates. Yeah. Um, but there's

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Speaker 1: this thing that candidates could use to their advantage. Um,

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Speaker 1: from the Communications Act in nineteen thirty four that established

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Speaker 1: the FCC. And in that Communications Act was this thing

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Speaker 1: called the Equal Time Provision. And the equal Time Provision said,

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Speaker 1: if you give media exposure to a bona fide a

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Speaker 1: presidential candidate, you have to give the same amount of

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Speaker 1: exposure to that same to to his rivals in the

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Speaker 1: in the election. Right. Yeah, And that meant that you

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Speaker 1: could if you said I'm not going to come to

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Speaker 1: this debate, that pretty much canceled the debate. Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: you couldn't just let that person have the stage. It

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Speaker 1: it disqualified them. The equal time equal Time Provision. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it's like it probably didn't look great to not debate,

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Speaker 1: but it looked better than going on a debate in

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Speaker 1: getting your butt handed to you on TV, as Nixon

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Speaker 1: did again and again and lost that nine election largely

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Speaker 1: because of that. Those debates with JFK, the televised versions

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Speaker 1: of him at least and yeah, you get bad press

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Speaker 1: for a news cycler too in the newspaper that only

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Speaker 1: you know hoarders keep um, but on television that makes

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Speaker 1: a really big impression. So yeah, Nixon himself used his

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Speaker 1: presidential veto power to keep the FEC from repealing the

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Speaker 1: equal time provision so that candidates couldn't do that any longer,

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Speaker 1: so he could keep dodging debates whenever he wanted to. Exactly.

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Speaker 1: That's why they call him tricky dick. It is right

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Speaker 1: one reason, so that kind of you know, in the

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Speaker 1: sixties and seventies, debates were in bad shape until the

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Speaker 1: l w V leg of Women Voters stepped back in

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Speaker 1: and said, you know what, we're gonna we need to

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Speaker 1: clean up this thing. And we are women here us

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Speaker 1: roar right, and let's give a little background on them.

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Speaker 1: They were born out of the suffrage movement. League of

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Speaker 1: Women Voters was because prior to the i think the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth Amendment and the which was past the n um,

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Speaker 1: you didn't have women voters. So right when the the

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Speaker 1: twentie Amendment or the nineteenth Amendment past the um, all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden you did it. So the Suffrage movement

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Speaker 1: translated to the League of Women Voters and said Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'll go forth and start shaping public policy through your votes. Right,

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Speaker 1: so ya, League of Women Voters stepping in to take

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Speaker 1: care of business and make sure these things go off

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Speaker 1: in a fair way. Yeah, because they were just getting

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Speaker 1: hammered anyway they could. But it wasn't just the legal

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Speaker 1: women voters. It was the SEC had a ruling as

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Speaker 1: well that allowed entree for the League of Women Voters

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Speaker 1: to step in. Was that when they declared it a

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Speaker 1: debate a bona fide news event. Yeah, and so they said,

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Speaker 1: there's a news event. If you hosted a third party

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Speaker 1: host it, then we have an exemption for the equal

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Speaker 1: time provision all of a sudden, which means now you

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Speaker 1: have to debate. The debate goes on without you. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you don't have to debate, but you look really bad

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Speaker 1: if you're not showing up right like Um Carter did.

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Speaker 1: Carter refused to debate um Reagan and Anderson and John

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Speaker 1: Anderson I think his name was who is an independent candidate? Um?

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Speaker 1: And so Reagan was like, oh, I'll do it, and

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Speaker 1: Anderson was like, I'll do it, and they debated without Carter.

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Speaker 1: That perhaps lost the election for m and then among

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Speaker 1: was a contributing factor. Any other things a contributing fact. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would say the oil embargo, UM, the the loss

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Speaker 1: of Delta force, seeking out the Iran hostages. There are

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Speaker 1: a lot of things going against Carter. He's done his

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Speaker 1: best work since then, and oh yeah, he's a statesman.

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Speaker 1: So the the LVW, they took the reins from seventy

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Speaker 1: six to eighty four because they stepped in is that

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Speaker 1: neutral party that was needed to fulfill that sec ruling.

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Speaker 1: So they said, we need a good format. We need

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Speaker 1: to split these formats into categories based on the types

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Speaker 1: of are not the types, but how the questions are asked.

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Speaker 1: And they used an open format which allowed follow up

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Speaker 1: questions among the candidates, which was really a big deal

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Speaker 1: because you can't use your rehearsed. I mean, you can

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Speaker 1: do it as much as you can, but you can

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Speaker 1: also get caught off guard and get that great spontaneity

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Speaker 1: that you're looking for out of your president and UM

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Speaker 1: or lack of right. So while that was the thing,

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Speaker 1: that's the that's the big problem is like you've got

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Speaker 1: your guy who now has to debate UM and who

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Speaker 1: is debating on television, who can just blow it all

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Speaker 1: after a debate or two, you can just completely blow everything.

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Speaker 1: Or like Herman Kinge came out of nowhere, just a

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Speaker 1: a like a businessman from Georgia, millionaire nine nine nine, right.

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Speaker 1: He came up with this plan and did really well

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Speaker 1: in a couple of debates, and it just shot to

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Speaker 1: the front. He passed Romney. I think in polls for

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Speaker 1: a little bit. Um, so debates can can really send you,

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Speaker 1: uh to the front of the pack work and just

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Speaker 1: basically kill all of your chances. Political strategists don't like

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Speaker 1: that at all. Campaign managers don't like that. They like

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Speaker 1: to control everything. Well, this was the heyday though then

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Speaker 1: when the League of Women Voters were running the show.

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Speaker 1: It was the heyday of presidential debates for sure. If

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Speaker 1: you were a voter, yeah, if you were a candidate,

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Speaker 1: it was like, so that's how it should be, right,

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Speaker 1: not hell on Earth, but at least like, you know,

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Speaker 1: spontaneous and real and not rehearsed. Right. So, um, the

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Speaker 1: League of Women Voters, Uh, they they did not acquiesce

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Speaker 1: to any demands of any candidates. They made very sure

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Speaker 1: that all candidates who were qualified got equal time. Um.

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Speaker 1: They just they it was a really fair debate and

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Speaker 1: the Republicans of the Democrats did not like this for

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Speaker 1: our a little more time, didn't they. They they gave

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Speaker 1: Geraldine for Our just a bit more time to write. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, what was Yeah, she's Mondale's um. So the

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Speaker 1: League of Women Voters kind of, I guess, made enemies

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Speaker 1: out of the Democrats and Republicans who are like, wait

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Speaker 1: a minute, wait a minute, this is in effect a

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Speaker 1: two party system, so we're pretty powerful, so let's get together.

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Speaker 1: And they started in nur um. They said, you know what,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna veto a hundred of the panelists. You propose,

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Speaker 1: and we're both gonna do it. They basically shut it down. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they took control from the League of Women Voters. And

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Speaker 1: the the death knell came in the campaign between George H. W.

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Speaker 1: Bush's campaign and Michael Ducacus's campaign, which got together and

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Speaker 1: created what's called a Memorandum of Understanding. Yeah, and they

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Speaker 1: basically I loved it. It took political candidates don't not

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Speaker 1: want to look like dummies to finally bring the two

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Speaker 1: parties together on one thing. They're like, well, we can

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Speaker 1: agree on this, right, and they did, and the Memoranum

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Speaker 1: of Understanding was a little secret document that said who

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Speaker 1: could be in the audience and the debates, who could

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Speaker 1: be a panelist? Uh, no more follow up questions, and

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Speaker 1: these are the terms. And the League of Women Voters said,

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Speaker 1: that's stinks because now we're just hosting this event. So

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Speaker 1: screw you. Well, they said that they were they resigned

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Speaker 1: as um as. Basically the hosts of presidential Debates love that.

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Speaker 1: They cited fraud on the American voter. That's pretty harsh

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Speaker 1: and um the the so the Democrats and the Republicans

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Speaker 1: were like, well, okay, perfect, that's that's not bad. Where

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Speaker 1: we got rid of the League of Women Voters, but

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Speaker 1: we still need a neutral party. Who is a neutral party? Oh,

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Speaker 1: I've got an idea. We'll create one from scratch. We'll

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Speaker 1: create a neutral party together that we can control. Exactly

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Speaker 1: another neutral called the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is

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Speaker 1: a joint, nonprofit bipartisan organization. And that is a very

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Speaker 1: very very important word. Not nonpartisan like the League of

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Speaker 1: Women Voter. Sure, bipartisan. That means we represent two things,

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Speaker 1: Republicans and Democrats. That's exactly right. So the the CPD,

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Speaker 1: the Commission on Presidential Debate, UM was established, took over

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Speaker 1: hosting presidential debates. It became the only organization that could

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Speaker 1: legitimately host an official presidential scheduled UM four of them

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Speaker 1: for presidential election UM, one of which is always a

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Speaker 1: vice presidential debate. Those are always fun and um basically

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Speaker 1: it does a It does a lot for the Democrats

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Speaker 1: and the Republicans chuck. Yeah, they have to obviously. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it starts about a year out because it takes a

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Speaker 1: lot of time to plan. They have to pick the location,

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Speaker 1: have to pick the moderators, the locations are. It's a

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Speaker 1: little tricky because you want a neutral site and when

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Speaker 1: you have you know, a panel of candidates up there

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Speaker 1: there from all over the country that you know a

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Speaker 1: lot of times are colleges and so obviously can't be

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Speaker 1: tied to that candidate in any way, right, it can't

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Speaker 1: be their alma mater. Yeah, So it takes a while

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Speaker 1: to get everything lined up in probably in the back rooms,

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Speaker 1: secretly approved by everybody exactly because it's like, well, I

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Speaker 1: want this podium to be this high because I can't

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Speaker 1: look short on camera, and I like my candidate likes

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Speaker 1: the debate hall temperature at this Yeah, and what's the

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Speaker 1: background look like, because we don't want you fading away

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Speaker 1: like Richard Nixon. Right, But the even the CPD or

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Speaker 1: this the um. Yeah, the CPD uh provides like an

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Speaker 1: even bigger um function for Democrats and Republicans that acts

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Speaker 1: as a shield, so it can issue some really unpopular decisions. Um,

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Speaker 1: but it's not beholden to the public at all. It

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Speaker 1: answers only to the Democrats and Republicans, and it it

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Speaker 1: since it acts as a shield. Everybody gets mad at

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Speaker 1: the Commission on Presidential Debates when really it was the

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Speaker 1: two campaigns that that came up with that decision. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like po happened with Pero and everyone remembers Ross Barrow

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Speaker 1: and that was pretty bad. Pero actually, and he was

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Speaker 1: from the Reform Party, had just a seven percent rating

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Speaker 1: before the debates. On election day got about ninetent of

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Speaker 1: the vote, which is a huge the biggest ever. So

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Speaker 1: in nine when he reared his little head again, Dole

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Speaker 1: and Clinton both said we don't want to debate this guy.

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Speaker 1: We don't want him around. And so essentially the the

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Speaker 1: SEC changed the provision. Oh I'm sorry, the the cp

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Speaker 1: D said you're not coming right because of the equal

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Speaker 1: time provision had been like canceled, right, and that was

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Speaker 1: the shield. So even though Clinton and Dole were behind it,

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Speaker 1: it was really the cp D who put like the

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Speaker 1: press release out there, so they took the hit for it, right,

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Speaker 1: And the some poll found that like six percent of

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Speaker 1: voters blamed the Clinton campaign for it, nineteen percent blamed

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Speaker 1: the Dole campaign, but fifty percent blamed the Commission on

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Speaker 1: Presidential Debates, So uh, shield activated. And um, they also

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Speaker 1: got rid of any kind of spontaneity where if you

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Speaker 1: watch presidential debates now, they're basically like, um, they're just

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Speaker 1: press releases. There's no follow up questions. There's just like,

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Speaker 1: here's the question that you've known for three weeks, we're

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Speaker 1: going to ask you, let's hear your answer. So it's

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Speaker 1: just completely managed and massaged. So um, and they were

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Speaker 1: criticized too. Yeah. John Kerry had a good, um, good

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Speaker 1: criticism in two thousand. He said, quote, you could have

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Speaker 1: picked ten people off the street who didn't know Jerusalem

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Speaker 1: from Georgia and they would have had better questions. So

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Speaker 1: that's where we stay right now. The Commission on Presidential Debates,

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Speaker 1: it still runs the show as much as there They

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Speaker 1: play a little looser though, like these candidates sort of

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Speaker 1: run over the rules, like barring someone like Anderson Cooper

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Speaker 1: coming out there and taping someone's mouth shut. You still

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Speaker 1: see them like, you know, running over the time. And

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Speaker 1: I remember when Bush and Gore um debated one another,

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Speaker 1: that was there's just so much sniping about what I

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Speaker 1: was supposed to have my time and he had his time,

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Speaker 1: so I'm gonna take extra time, and it just it's

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Speaker 1: sort of gets out of hand. It was it was

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Speaker 1: it a presidential debate or a primary debate? No, I

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Speaker 1: mean feels Bush and Gore when a primary debate or

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Speaker 1: well no, but was it like hosted by CNN or

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Speaker 1: something like that, or was it official? You know, I

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Speaker 1: don't remember. I mean it was the famous one where

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Speaker 1: they started showing reaction shots and it showed George Bush

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Speaker 1: getting all perturbed each time Gore with you know, they

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Speaker 1: had the split screen up basically, so that one was

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Speaker 1: um uh two thousand four between Carrie and Bush. Well

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Speaker 1: they seed they did the same thing with Gore because

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Speaker 1: I watched it earlier and George Bush is annoyed. Well,

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Speaker 1: they just showed a split screen so while Gore was talking,

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Speaker 1: it showed Bush's reactions the whole time and then vice versa. Right,

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Speaker 1: and apparently there was a memorandum of understanding that the

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Speaker 1: networks were just like, no, we're not gonna do that.

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Speaker 1: We're going to film breakaway shots that that may have

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Speaker 1: been a scene and thing, though you're right, it may

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Speaker 1: not have been official. Um, let's see what else, Chuck, Well,

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Speaker 1: what makes an ideal debate? We've talked, we pooh pooed it.

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Speaker 1: What makes a good one, Well, a good one, like

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Speaker 1: you said, it needs to be fair, So like the CPD,

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Speaker 1: the CPD is doing some stuff fairly, like um, not

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Speaker 1: holding a debate at the alma mater of one of

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Speaker 1: the candidates or their home state or their hometown or

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Speaker 1: anything like that, and they can't. You also pointed out

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Speaker 1: that it's usually a bigger city too, because you have

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Speaker 1: to have what is it, three thousand available hotel rooms

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Speaker 1: and pay a seventy application fee, So that rules out

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Speaker 1: anywhere in Kansas, right pretty much? You know, yeah, yeah, Um.

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Speaker 1: There's also the division of time is very important. You know,

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Speaker 1: most of the time candidates will well they almost always

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Speaker 1: get time at the beginning and at the end, and

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Speaker 1: then in the middle that's where it kind of gets

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Speaker 1: like wild and crazy, like how you're gonna divide the time? Uh?

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Speaker 1: And you know, is there gonna be rebuttals? Are you're

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Speaker 1: gonna allow cross examination? That's very rare, Um, But ideally

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Speaker 1: you everybody has equal time in the middle, and then

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Speaker 1: you usually have like a moderator. Yeah, there's three formats basically,

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Speaker 1: well there's moderator panel in town hall. Yeah, and there's

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Speaker 1: almost always a moderator no matter what, and all three

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Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, and the panelists it's uh, they're like

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Speaker 1: you said, there's still could be a moderator, but you

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Speaker 1: just have more than one person um replacing So there's

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Speaker 1: a moderator replacing the moderator with a panel, but you

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Speaker 1: still have a moderator. Sort of confusing it is. And

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Speaker 1: then town hall is usually the fun the audience asking

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Speaker 1: questions costs examining the the candidate. That's a very rare

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Speaker 1: one too, because you know, anything can happen. Somebody could

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Speaker 1: go off script. Yeah, that's true. Um, you have to

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Speaker 1: actually qualify for debate. You can't just say how I

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Speaker 1: am Joe Walsh and I'm running for president and I

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Speaker 1: want to be on there singing Rocky Mountain way. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The rules for qualifying for a debater that you have

425
00:24:56,400 --> 00:25:00,720
Speaker 1: to be just it's it has to be statistically possible

426
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 1: for you to win in the electoral college. So your

427
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,400
Speaker 1: name has to appear on like a certain amount of

428
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: state ballots, right, yeah, and you have to have a

429
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: fIF of voter support before the debate. But if you

430
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 1: if you qualify for that, and a lot of people do,

431
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 1: then you can be in these debates. Supposedly that that

432
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 1: was a league of women voters stuff. I wasn't, so

433
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: some of that still carried over. That's good. So these

434
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,879
Speaker 1: things are important, though nonetheless because you know, nowadays as

435
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: you're influenced almost as much by what everyone says about

436
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: the debate as the debate itself, because immediately after and

437
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 1: actually even during sometimes the debates, the networks and the

438
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: cable stations and the internet will start saying, well, who won,

439
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 1: This was strong? He was strong, here, she was strong there. Um.

440
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,920
Speaker 1: They pull people on, you know, immediately afterward, either on

441
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 1: the internet or by telephone and sort of say, well,

442
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: this is who won, regardless of what you think. Well yeah,

443
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,360
Speaker 1: and then once the polls released, it's like, yeah, your

444
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,399
Speaker 1: your perception is affected. It's all about perception. If you

445
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: were maybe on the fence before, it's like, oh, well

446
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: everybody else thinks they want and then heck, yeah they

447
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: won of course. Um. There are some classic examples of

448
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 1: clear winners and losers in debates, Like you mentioned George

449
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: Bush Like looking annoyed during breakaway shots, he still won. Um.

450
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: The I think his father was caught looking at his

451
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: watch a bunch of times during the nineteen with Clinton,

452
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,680
Speaker 1: that was pretty big. Um. Dan Quayle and the vice

453
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:46,000
Speaker 1: presidential debate, he compared himself, do you remember this man, big,

454
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,359
Speaker 1: big mistake. He compared himself to this is dan Quayle.

455
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,199
Speaker 1: He compared himself to John F. Kennedy. Well, it was

456
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: a loose comparison though one and I don't remember the

457
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: exact quote, but I think he was probably talking about

458
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,399
Speaker 1: his youth and vigor. Yeah, but I think I remember

459
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 1: at the time feeling like like he got shut down

460
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:07,119
Speaker 1: by Lloyd Lloyd Benson. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy

461
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:09,119
Speaker 1: was a friend of mine and you Senator or no,

462
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 1: Jack Kennedy. I remember feeling in time like he wasn't

463
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 1: really saying he was like Jack Kennedy. I felt sort

464
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 1: of bad for him, but pounced on him. He pounced

465
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: on him, Uh, just like Reagan did. And I watched

466
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 1: that clip earlier too. He got a good laugh in

467
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: the Mondale debate when he I can't remember the moderator,

468
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: but he asked Reagan about his health and his age

469
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 1: as the oldest candidate, and they said, you appeared tired

470
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,399
Speaker 1: recently after your meetings in Russia, and quite honestly, do

471
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: you have what it takes healthwise to to be president?

472
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: And uh or to remain president. I think it was

473
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: re election, wasn't it. And uh, yeah, Carter, and he said,

474
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna, you know, bring this in age, bring

475
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,639
Speaker 1: age into this equation. I don't want to exploit for

476
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: political purposes the youth and inexperience of my candidate or

477
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: my rival. And Mondale even busted out laughing. It was

478
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: a very nice, slight moment. Mindale was awesome. He he

479
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 1: loved a good joke, even when he was the butt

480
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, he was that kind of guy. At

481
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,199
Speaker 1: least he wasn't that case. He was the eighties. George mcgoverned,

482
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: um So, Chuck. We we we talked about the nineteen sixty

483
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,520
Speaker 1: the Great Debate changing everything. Television changed everything, and then

484
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: the two political parties wrestled um that change and used

485
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: it to their advantage. Um. But now social media is

486
00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: starting to have that impact, and it really kind of

487
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: popped up most for the first time. In two thousand

488
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: and eight, there was like the CNN YouTube town halls,

489
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: which were pretty cool, but you know, they people were

490
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: allowed to submit questions on YouTube and then the two

491
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: campaigns got to choose what questions were answered or chosen,

492
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: which they were criticized for. Yeah. But um, my Space

493
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: and MTV held town halls and um, it's some some

494
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: social media site. I think it's like, um, get glue

495
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: were something like that. Um, but it's like it has

496
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: cobwebs on it. It's weird. I guess it's for Halloween though. Um.

497
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: The but the MySpace, uh, MySpace, MTV town hall, I

498
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: think they were town hall formats. Um. The moderator chose

499
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: questions as they came in live. So that was like

500
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: a triumph. Techniques loved it. Yeah, but I mean think

501
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 1: about it, that's reinjecting spontaneity through social media. I'm sure

502
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 1: Facebook was involved in this Last Earth uninvolved but certainly

503
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: lit up. Well, they picked the they picked two one, yeah, okay,

504
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg and Eric Schmidt decided who it was, and

505
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: that Twitter played apart two right. Yeah. There was the

506
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: debate between McCain and Barack Obama or their surrogates who

507
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 1: knew how to use Twitter, and they were responding to

508
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: questions from a moderator from time in a hundred and

509
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 1: forty characters or least. I'm sure McCain had no idea

510
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 1: what Twitter was at the time, you know, do your

511
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: remember there was there was this one debate between it

512
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 1: was an official debate between Obama and McCain, and McCain

513
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 1: looked like he was just wandering around this this set

514
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: like he didn't know where he was supposed to be.

515
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,440
Speaker 1: And then Obama seemed like a like a schoolboy, like

516
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 1: when the moderator was like your times up, he'd stopped

517
00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: real quick and look at him like, am I in trouble?

518
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: And I was like, these are the two guys? Huh? Well?

519
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: And it's that just proves though, how like influence of

520
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: perception and television even from a silly like going to

521
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: commercial break shot of like McCain wandering around or something

522
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 1: you know, but yeah, while Obama was answering, he's just

523
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 1: wandering around. Well, you know. It was something, but yeah,

524
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: it'silly influenced my perception, but it influenced my perception perception

525
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 1: of Obama too that like he wasn't quite ready. Yeah,

526
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,760
Speaker 1: something else that television. Huh Yeah, let's go vote, Chuck,

527
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: let's go vote for something. Yeah, I'll vote. Did you

528
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 1: feel like voting on something? Suffrage that's already been done? Okay. Um,

529
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 1: if you want to read a really literary article on

530
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: presidential debates written by me checks On, a big fan

531
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: of it, I don't blame that. It's cool. Um, you

532
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: can type in presidential debates in the search bar at

533
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Yeah, yes, which brings up

534
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 1: listener mail Josh. Occasionally we like to shout out to

535
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 1: our troops overseas, and we're doing that right now. Okay,

536
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 1: Hi guys, Norm who was uh Lizzell's husband. Lazelle wrote

537
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: in uh, ENORM is currently station because we had conversed

538
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: back and forth. That's why it seems very casual here.

539
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 1: ENORM is currently stationed at f o B Salerno in Afghanistan.

540
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: What is that Front Operating Base Forward operating Base sounds

541
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: right uh in the three hundred and fifty second Combat

542
00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 1: Support Hospital in the Coast Province that is k h

543
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: O SD Cost Province. He is a trauma nurse working

544
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 1: the evening shifts and will be there till the end

545
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: of February. Many in his unit are working twelve hour

546
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: shifts five to six days a week, providing medical care

547
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: to both US troops and Afghan civilians. Right now, his

548
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: family basically is the unit in Afghanistan. So I was

549
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: wondering if you can give a shout out to him

550
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 1: and his c SH or even do a show about

551
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: how medical combat support hospitals work, that would really help

552
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 1: make him and others in his unit happy. A lot

553
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: of them are kind of blue right now, obviously for

554
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: being in the same place, doing the same thing day

555
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 1: in and day out while handling the trauma there. Norm secretly,

556
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 1: which is that you and Josh would be a part

557
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: of the U s O and travel and share your

558
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 1: show with folks abroad. I would go to Afghanistan. I

559
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: would totally do that. I've listed a site which will

560
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: give you more information on the people who have given

561
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 1: a year or more to help our country. So if

562
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: you guys want to go check out what combat support

563
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: hospitals are liking to do. Operation support Salerno dot org

564
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 1: and that is s A L E R n oh

565
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: dot org slash Soldier Underscore Support. So, Operations Support Salerno

566
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: dot org slash Soldier Underscore Support. Many thanks in advance,

567
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: and that is from Lazelle. My brother in law's going

568
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: back for a year. No way, Yeah, where's he going.

569
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: He's going to Afghanistan really in January. What does he

570
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: do there? He is a marine colonel, helicopter pilot and dude,

571
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: he is in line to become a general. No way,

572
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: how cool is that? That's really cool? So we're all

573
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: rooting for him for that. Yeah, we should start sort

574
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 1: of social media effort on his behalf. I don't think

575
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: they can consider that. Yeah, it's quite a force to

576
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 1: be reckoned with. He'll make it. He's he's always been

577
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: in the other class. He's one of those guys. So also,

578
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: if you want to know what, um what a forward

579
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: operating based hospital is like, you can just watch mash Sure.

580
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's pretty accurate depiction. Yeah, they just sit

581
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 1: around and drink homemade whisker on my gin. And yeah,

582
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: yeah um, thank you, Lizelle, We appreciate that, and good

583
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: luck to you and norm Um, and good luck to

584
00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: your brother in law, Chuck. Stay safe, everybody. Yeah uh.

585
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: If you want to let us know how your family

586
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,759
Speaker 1: is doing, we're interested, we want to hear. You can

587
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:32,080
Speaker 1: tweak to us at s y s K podcast. You

588
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 1: can join us on Facebook's big party over there. Uh

589
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,239
Speaker 1: it's uh Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know,

590
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 1: and you can send an email in support of Chuck's

591
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,680
Speaker 1: brother in law two Stuff podcast at how Stuff works

592
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast,

593
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 1: Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as

594
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:01,280
Speaker 1: we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,

595
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camry.

596
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you