Kennedy And Nixon Debate Analysis

Debates have always been a staple of the United States’ election process. In 1960, presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated. Just like them, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin debated for the vice president office in 2008. In the Kennedy/Nixon debate, they mostly discussed national issues instead of international affairs having to do with America’s relations with other countries. The economic contributions each party had made was of the biggest disagreement. Kennedy of the Democratic Party believed that America had vast amounts of room to improve in areas such as teacher’s pay, hunger, and the government’s use of natural resources, while Nixon focused on emphasising the amount of improvements he had already made in his past experience as vice president, thus focusing his arguments upon continually reminding the audience of

As one watches this debate, one can quickly become distracted by the extremely evident difference between the two debates. While the Kennedy/Nixon debate seemed genuine and that each candidate had the interest of the American people at heart, both Biden and Palin seemed more focused on proving each other wrong. Style wise, Palin was at times much too informal for the professional setting of the debate, using phrases such as “darn right” and using examples from the perspective of a normal American hockey mom. Not only did she do that, but she also spoke much more quickly and said “um” and “uh” often enough to the point where it was distracting to the viewer. It often seemed as if she was trying much too hard to be relatable which actually had the opposite effect of the desired result. Biden, on the other hand, spoke much slower and presented more facts. It was obvious that he was much more practiced in the realm of political speaking. As a result, Biden was more effective in his use of rhetoric in the