AMERICAN DEBATES AND THE FEAR OF A GAFFE. Kids, I once saw a Presidential debate on television in which the two candidates stared frozen into the camera for 27 minutes. It was a debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976, as described here. “The first debate in Philadelphia was remembered for a 27-minute delay in which the sound on stage went dead. Neither candidate moved for fear he may be caught on camera in an unflattering pose. So for almost 30 minutes, the nation watched the two candidates standing mannequin-like at their podiums while the technical problems were fixed.†The candidates were of course right to fear a gaffe. The press seeks out gaffes. I think it’s because of what I used to call the Bobby Fisher syndrome. We judge people according to what we are good at. Bobby Fisher judged people according to how good they were at chess. The press tends to think that a news anchor’s talents are the most important in judging a President. News anchors don’t make gaffes and Presidents should not make gaffes.
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That’s pretty incredible! I think if a sci-fi writer had his political characters do something like that, it would be considered ridiculous and ham-handed political satire.
The thing is, I imagine one of the candidates could have made this work to his advantage. He could have turned on the charm. He could have done something resourceful like ask for a pen and paper and write notes on it. He could have made himself look like the smarter, more personable, or otherwise more capable of the two candidates. Then again, I suppose one of the most important things for a president to be is dignified, judging by all the criticism and mockery of Ford’s notorious fall and how Bush Sr. barfed while on a trip to Japan.
This also kinda surprises me for the reason that so many other routes to celebrity (and therefore success) involve being memorable. Then again, staying stock still for 27 minutes is pretty memorable….