Candidates Most Telling When They Aren't Talking
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By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
The New York Times
October 1, 2004
When President Bush leaned over his lectern and talked directly into the camera, he had the same firm, squared-off look he brings to a presidential address from the Oval Office.
When the networks (flouting the debate rules) cut to Mr. Bush while Senator John Kerry was speaking, the president had the hunched shoulders and the peevish, defensive look of an incumbent under heavy attack.
And it was body language as much as rhetoric and one-liners that distinguished the two candidates in last night's debate. The networks were right to disregard the campaigns' ban on cutaways and reaction shots. Instead, all the networks, including Fox News, lavished viewers with split screens and shots of the candidates from almost every angle, including shots from behind the president's tensely knotted back.
Television homes in on feelings hidden beneath rehearsed words and reveals instinctive responses and glimmers of personality.
The cameras demonstrated that Mr. Bush cannot hear criticism without frowning, blinking and squirming (he even sighed once). They showed that Mr. Kerry can control his anger and stay cool but that he cannot suppress his inner overeager A student, flashing a bleach-white smile and nodding hungrily at each question.
Mr. Kerry's confident, calm manner may have paid off. CBS was one of several news organizations that conducted instant focus group surveys during the debate. A few minutes after the candidates finished their closing statements, CBS News said 51 percent of the 200 uncommitted sample voters thought that Mr. Kerry had a clear plan for Iraq. Only 38 percent thought the president did.
Even Fox News analysts thought Mr. Kerry did well. Mort Kondracke of Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, said Mr. Kerry looked like a "commander in chief" and Ceci Connolly of The Washington Post said she thought the polls would tighten a bit after the debate.
The moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, asked polite, obvious questions that failed to take either candidate by surprise. Going into the showdown, Mr. Bush had clearly planned on seizing the offensive. He walked out first, moving so fast that he met Mr. Kerry past the midpoint of the stage, in front of Mr. Kerry's lectern. Face to face, Mr. Kerry told a joke, and clung to Mr. Bush's hand, perhaps seeking to hold him in close enough to flaunt his greater height. Bush gave a polite laugh, turned away from the handshake, and his body had left while Mr. Kerry was just letting go of his finger tips.
The decision to have the two lecterns be of matching height (50 inches) turned out to work against Mr. Bush. The agreed-upon lectern cut the president mid-chest, and made him look smaller, as if he were in a bunker. He did not extend himself beyond its confines, but instead kept his arms in front of him, barely peeking above the lip of the lectern.
If Mr. Bush looked too testy when his opponent spoke, Mr. Kerry looked a little too engaged. He kept picking up his pen and scribbling notes and smiling to himself, like an overly confident prosecutor in court.
But he moved gracefully. Mr. Bush slouched and stayed coiled tight, but Mr. Kerry seemed at times to be waltzing with his partner, the lectern. Mr. Kerry moved his hands almost continuously, at one point folding them over his heart like a French mime as he explained that he felt "nothing but respect" for Tony Blair and British soldiers serving in Iraq.
At the end of the debate, the candidates' wives had their own moment of nonverbal oneupmanship. Both wore white silk suits, and both tried to be gracious. Laura Bush smiled and whispered something in Teresa Heinz Kerry's ear; Mrs. Heinz Kerry turned their hug into a jaunty joint wave to the crowd. Mr. Kerry got into the shot with the two women. Mr. Bush went to his daughters in the corner and rushed offstage.
Mr. Bush, who seemed to grow tired as the night wore on, repeatedly used the phrase "hard work" to describe the war in Iraq. Mr. Kerry repeatedly referred to his first-hand experience sending men into battle in Vietnam, and that seemed to unnerve Mr. Bush. The president said he understood that fighting was hard work and added, "I see on the TV screens how hard it is."
TV debates are also hard work.
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