The Big Debate !

Last night was the first of the big Presidential debates. The first of a few between Republican nominee President George.W.Bush and Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry of Massachussetts, the debate should put to rest some questions about the oratorical strengths of the respective candidates. While the policies and political agenda of the candidates assume a lot of significance, in the past, the visual and oratorical appeal of the candidate has been the most important factor that people have looked for.

This time the venue was the UM Convocation Center at University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fl. The show was hosted by Jim Lehrer of PBS. The hour and a half long debate was based on rules agreed upon by the representatives of the candidates and the questions were all by Jim Lehrer. For Senator Kerry, it was a chance to address a much wider audience than before and to lay to rest claims that he was a flip-flopper. For President Bush, it was a chance to assert his confidence and control over the foreign affairs of the country, and to also justify his "invasion" of Iraq. To that effect, Senator Kerry did a better job than President Bush. For most of the debate, President Bush kept reverting to the "mixed-signals" being sent by Senator Kerry. There was neither any new material nor an admittance of the fact that things were going very wrong in Iraq. Instead President Bush continued to prey on the flip-flop tag of Senator Kerry as he has done during most of his campaign. Senator Kerry, for the most part was trying to defend his one big decision to support the authorizing troops to Iraq in Congress. This one decision of his continues to haunt his presidential aspirations and might very well prove to be campaign's downfall. But beyond his defense, Senator Kerry's command over the language and the debate as such was very evident. Senator Kerry dominated the proceedings and was on the offensive while President Bush continued to beat the mixed-signals accusation to death. In addition to the verbal drama, the body language of the participants were available for contrast to the audience via the split screen display in CSPAN. While Senator Kerry appeared failry poised and confident, President Bush appeared troubled and disinterested in the proceedings.

Many analysts, while agreeing that Senator Kerry won the debate, also indicated that debates rarely swayed the public. All that this did was give Senator Kerry a fighting chance in what was appearing to be a lost cause. This would also trigger more interest in the public for the second and third debates, not to mention the only Vice Presidential debate this Tuesday.

It would be really interesting to watch similar debates between the candidates during the Indian elections. Unfortunately, the candidates get chosen amidst great drama much later than the elections themselves. While there are always a bunch of possible candidates, elections in India have thrown up so many interesting political marriages of convenience that it would be unwise to bet on the Prime Minister elect, until he has met the President and formally submitted the support signatures of his and other parties. Democracy assumes a totally new context, when it comes to electing India's Prime Minister totally unlike the one we are currently witnessing. With some renewed vigor in the final stages of the election campaign, this is one month of the year (actually 4 years) that would make for the best of political masala.