If you’ve any interest in US politics then you’ll have a lot of interest in the presidential debate due to take place this week.
It’s sure to be unique if only because it’s the first time that the second debate in an election cycle has different candidates, with Kamala replacing Joe.
Whatever fireworks emerge during this debate it would be remiss of 3ology not to celebrate the event with our very own … Top 3 Presidential Debates.
Jack Kennedy vs Richard Nixon (1960)
The first and probably still the most famous presidential debate saw an up-and-coming senator from Massachusetts (Kennedy) take full advantage of a new medium in which he excelled versus a Republican vice-president (Nixon) who did not.
Also Nixon was just recovering from illness, hadn’t shaved and refused makeup, which was not a good look, particularly juxtaposed alongside Kennedy who despite a litany of long term illness (most hidden from the public) looked by far the more youthful and vigorous of the two.
To illustrate the power of television. surveys suggested TV viewers saw Kennedy as the winner whilst radio listeners Nixon.
But in an election won by the slimmest of margins, that very first presidential debate is perhaps still the most consequential of all time.
Jimmy Carter vs Ronald Reagan (1980)
Reagan was the B List Hollywood actor that no one took very seriously.
But an ability to coin (and sometimes mangle) a phrase enabled him to walk away with the 1980 presidential debate against an earnest yet uninspiring incumbent in President Carter.
The most memorable line, which still has currency today, was by Reagan in response to a slightly overlong attack by Carter, trying to alert the public to Reagan’s conservative plans to cut Medicare Healthcare Funding.
“There you go again” quipped the ex-Cowboy who was about to achieve an electoral landslide.
Hilary Clinton vs Donald Trump (2016)
One of the biggest shocks in US presidential history took place in November 2016 as Trump took the presidency.
Whilst his debates with Clinton might not have been pivotal to the result, they gave an incredulous establishment early evidence of his outsider appeal.
Clinton’s attack on Trump for his failure to pay income taxes and other misdemeanors would have sunk most candidates but not this one.
He just replied with: “That makes me smart”.
And perhaps the abiding visual memory of the debate took place as Trump stalked Clinton around the stage, something she later said “made her skin crawl”.
It made for uncomfortable but memorable viewing.