Episode #415: The Debate — Cui Bono?

Ken Rudin's Political Junkie

Ken Rudin

Politics, News

4.6 • 633 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alan Schroeder, author of the definitive book on presidential debates, takes us on a tour of memorable debates over the years and tries to assess how next week’s “bash” (CNN pun intended) between President Biden and former President Trump may affect the November vote — if at all.
NPR’s Ron Elving adds up the pros and cons of Trump’s many potential running mates and, when pressed, announces his prediction. Ken Rudin agrees with him.
And Republican strategist Frank Donatelli recounts his career of working for GOP presidential candidates going back to Ronald Reagan and lists the VP picks that were successful … and less so.
Photo by Reuters.
Music in this episode:
Don’t Stand So Close To Me by The Police
Another Star by Stevie Wonder
Those Were the Days by Mary Hopkin

Transcript

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0:00.0	bracing for the debate and predicting the Trump VP this week on the political junkie.
0:07.0	You like Ike, I like like, everybody likes like for president.
0:11.2	Add like to you and think to me. I don't care how you quoted.
0:15.3	Come on and vote for Kennedy, vote for Kennedy, and we'll come out on top.
0:22.3	Vote for Richard Nixon and Henry Cabotlach, because they're the ones to lead the USA.
0:32.6	Thanks for joining us, and welcome to episode 415 of the political junkie.
0:38.6	I'm Ken Rudin.
0:40.4	One of the most highly anticipated moments in presidential campaigns, at least since 1976,
0:47.3	has been the debate.
0:49.1	Kennedy and Nixon held four of them in 1960, and tens of millions of people tuned in to watch. It didn't exactly
0:56.1	begin a tradition. President Johnson refused to debate his Republican opponent in 1964,
1:02.2	and Richard Nixon similarly said no in 1968 and 72. The debates returned in 1976 and have been
1:10.6	with us ever since.
1:12.8	We watched these debates to learn about the candidates. We watch them to see who should be our next president.
1:18.8	They can be instructive as well as theatrical, but we watch. And we always try to figure out how they might affect the outcome of the election.
1:29.6	More often than not, they don't.
1:34.9	But in 2024, in a race between two elderly and unpopular candidates,
1:39.0	a race that seems airtight for some four and a half months before the election,
1:41.7	the debates could become the ballgame.
1:46.9	Alan Schroeder has been on the program before and with good reason.
1:54.6	His book from 2000 presidential debates, 40 years of high-risk TV, remains the Bible of such debates.
2:05.0	And in case you're wondering, he put out a second edition in 2008 called 50 Years of high-risk TV, which includes in 2000 and 2004 elections.
	...

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