The Debate About the Debate

        Now that we are two debates deep into the presidential election, I have discovered that the post debate analysis is almost more important to me than the actual debate. Many people also turn to the news, twitter, newspapers, or blogs for a post-debate analysis in order to determine the outcome of a debate. Both objective and subjective  analysis' are made available to the American public. However, in our nation of cable television and partisan news shows (like Fox and MSNBC) many people opt to tuning into their partisan-specific news medium to get their post debate coverage. These viewers are most likely getting a surrogate spin on the debate rather than an objective analysis. A surrogate spin is when a candidate's supporter puts a positive spin on a candidate's debate performance. No matter what.

         Romney was declared the winner of the first debate by the majority of analysts and Obama was declared the winner of the second debate. Romney's initial victory over Obama was clear to most viewers. However, Obama's victory over Romney in the second debate was not as clear. Cue the surrogate spinners. The spinner has five objectives: declare victory for their candidate, identify the candidate's strengths, candidate's best moments, the opponents weaknesses and finally the opponent's worst moments. 

        Fox News declared Romney the clear victor of the second debate. The transcript or video clip of the interview with surrogate spinner, Karl Rove, can be read/watched at "Romney Won Second Debate, Obama Showed No Vision."Rove claimed that Obama lost the debate because he spent too much time being aggressive and defending his presidency, "His strength was being aggressive... he did not have a chance to do what he really needed to do, which was to lay out a comprehensive vision for the next four years." Rove said that Romney's strength was his clear vision with the five-point plan.

       The The New Yorker declared Obama the clear victor of the second debate. The New Yorker claimed that Obama's strength was his aggressiveness. They stated that one of Obama's best moments was when he poked holes in Romney's budget plan. They said that Romney's worst moment was when the moderator corrected Romney's "terror" comment, "An audience member asked Obama about the deaths at the American consulate in Benghazi  'Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?' After Obama patently failed to answer the question, Romney should have shoved it right back at him. Instead, he accused the President of failing to call the killings a terrorist attack for fourteen days." 

       If I were an independent voter (which I am coincidentally enough) and read these two articles, I would be persuaded to think that Obama won the second election. This goes to show how important the role of a surrogate spin is for a candidate. Fox News did not highlight "a greatest moment" for Romney nor did they highlight a specific "weakest moment" for Obama. Instead, they made many arbitrary references to how Obama was too aggressive. The New Yorker did a great job covering all five of the objectives that a good surrogate spin should analyze. They also utilized concrete examples, a narrative and more eloquent language than the Fox interview. Fox talked too much about Obama's weaknesses and not enough about Romney's strengths. The New Yorker highlighted both Obama's strengths and Romney's weaknesses, which made for a persuasive argument and ultimately may have cost Romney a vote.