From every TV ad to the one-liners tossed at a meet-and-greet, political campaigns are scripted down to the last moment. But sometimes, even the most carefully-rehearsed answers fall flat and leave voters wanting more. That’s what makes a political debate so valuable: it gives voters and campaigns the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue about issues of importance, and it provides a more detailed view of candidates than can be conveyed in a 30-second television spot or five-minute conversation with an unpaid college intern canvassing for a campaign.
The format of a leaders’ debate can vary, but generally the leaders will open with brief remarks and a panel of well-known journalists will ask sets of prepared questions that can be answered by all of the leadership candidates or a single leader, with time allowed for rebuttal. The moderator tries to maintain some control through the process, often referring to polling data to determine which questions will be asked and managing each leader’s response times.
In a presidential debate, Federal Election Commission regulations require that the organization staging the event select candidates to participate based on pre-established objective criteria, and cannot use nomination by a party as a sole criterion. The CPD also regularly advises sponsors of non-presidential debates (gubernatorial, congressional, mayoral, state legislative, city council) about production issues and voter education initiatives, and the organization is constantly evaluating how to improve the value of these events.
Ultimately, the goal of a political debate is to help voters make informed decisions about which candidate to support. A good debate performance will not change a voter’s mind about a candidate, but it can give voters more information than might be available from a television commercial or the water cooler conversations at work.
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