Monday, October 20, 2008

Reviewing Old Debates

The present day debates are completely different from debates in previous times, but are also very similar. Election Debates have been around since at least 1870's when we first saw the Lincoln Douglas Debates. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were a 7 part serious that traveled all through Illinois.

They are similar in the sense that they both involved two candidates and rebutted their ideals against one another, but the format was different. Abraham Lincoln and Stephan Douglas had there debate where one talked for an hour, the other responded for half an hour, and then did his talk for an hour, and then the first one who talked gave his speech than gave his 30 minute response.

Personally, I don't think the candidates in the 2008 presidential elections could have their debate with these settings. First because they wouldn't be able to not talk while the other one talked for that period of time, and it was cause to many disturbances. Also, I don't think that they could cover in depth a lot of the same topics and as diverse as they do with the way they did there debates. They would spend to much time going over one specific topic and not as many different topics. Also I feel the current debate style references more as a debate because they can respond a lot faster.


Resources:

"Lincoln-Douglas Debates." National Park Service - Experience Your America. 18 Oct. 2008 .

" 2008 Presidential Debates." You Decide 2008. 18 Oct. 2008. .

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