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Peter Spiegel, US editor-in-chief
Can a second presidential debate really alter the course of an election? If history is any guide, it is usually the first debate that garners the largest audience and sets the tone, which would be bad news for Donald Trump, whose first debate can be considered one of the most fatal in presidential history.
John Kennedy could have looked young and vigorous in the first debate in 1960, and Richard Nixon never caught up. Al Gore rolled his eyes and sighed melodramatically at his first debate with George W Bush in 2000, an image of arrogance and pomposity that he never shed. Gerald Ford claimed that “there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” in his first 1976 debate with Jimmy Carter, a mistake that would help ruin his chances of re-election.
But there are examples where a candidate was able to turn things around later in the series of debates. Most significant, and perhaps the most relevant to tonight’s duel, was Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. In the first debate against former Vice President Walter Mondale, Reagan stumbled upon budget details and other political minutiae, leading to to questions about whether the incumbent’s age, then 74, was catching up.
Those close to Reagan, including his wife Nancy, accused campaign staff of overwhelming the president with facts to remember. Paul Laxalt, a Nevada senator and longtime Reagan confidant, said that in the second debate, “they would let Reagan be Reagan.” The result was one of the most famous gossip in the history of the presidential debate. When asked about his age, the headline joked: “I will not make age an issue for this campaign. I am not going to exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience for political purposes ”.
The line had even more impact because a camera to the right of the stage cut into two shots that showed Mondale laughing out loud at the joke. And it was a joke: Mondale was 56 at the time and not only had he spent four years as vice president, he had had two terms as a Minnesota senator under his belt, and had worked in national politics, including as an aide to a fellow. of Minnesotan. Hubert Humphrey, since the 1940s.
Reagan’s age was no longer a campaign issue and he won 49 states in November, losing only the home state of Mondale, Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Trump has never been particularly Reagan. But it may take Gipper’s deft touch to turn things around tonight.
