Chocola/Donnelly Debate: Spin-Doctors @ Work

As we have learned debate is a very important part of the political process. Within the debate-sector of politics, however, we’ve learned that almost more important than the actual debate itself is the analysis that goes on post debate. The spin-doctors on both sides want to make it seem as though their candidate won, focusing on their candidate’s best moments & strengths as well as attacking the opposition.

After doing the Chocola/Donnelly debate exercise in class, I was looking at each of their respective websites wanting to see if the ‘professionals’ got some of the same impressions we did. Of course, both Donnelly and Chocola’s websites had postings announcing each candidate’s victory in the debate. On Chocola’s WEBSITE the headline after the first debate was “Chocola Crushes Donnelly…” Clearly, Chocola’s team of spinners, we’ll call them, was hard at work trying to spin the debate in his favor pointing out Chocola’s strengths and Donnelly’s weaknesses. My favorite part of this article is when it makes reference to the eye contact (an important non-verbal!) that we addressed in class. Brooks Kochvar (Chocola’s chief of staff) said, “While Chocola looked voters in the eye and told them exactly where he stood on the issues important to them, Donnelly evaded on every single one.”

Likewise, shortly after the first debate, a posting on Donnelly’s website was entitled “Joe Donnelly Won the First Debate!” This ARTICLE, however, doesn’t seem to spin the debate in Donnelly’s favor the same way Chocola’s camp did for their candidate. This article merely cites that students at Rochester High School (where the first debate was held) “voted 6-5 that Joe out-performed his opponent, Chris Chocola.” This article doesn’t really play up Donnelly’s strengths, and doesn’t pick on any of Chocola’s weaknesses. Also, I’m not sure how much faith people will put into a poll of high schoolers, most of whom aren’t old enough to vote. There is, however, another ARTICLE on Donnelly’s cite that also refers to the first debate. This article, again though, doesn’t really successfully spin the debate in Donnelly’s favor. This article seems more like the work of a media analyst as it is fairly objective throughout.

I am confused as to why, on Donnelly’s website he wouldn’t have an article about the debate more like the one found on Chocola’s only tipped in his favor. It’s interesting to see that the spinning and analyzing post-debate really is almost as important, if not more, than the debate itself. In these regards I think that Chocola’s spinners do a much better job to get people to believe that their candidate did win the debate. Donnelly’s camp didn’t seem as concerned with this. I'm not sure if this hurt him or not, and I haven't yet heard much about the other debates, but I can't wait for election day when this race will finally be done so we can have our televisions & normal commercials back!