Democracy is for Children

[syrakusos]

Scientists showed a few years ago that such an approach worked for adults looking at mug shots of candidates for the U.S. Congress. Now two economists at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland have extended the findings to children, using candidates in the 2002 French parliamentary election.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/226/3

[Brant Gaede]

Scientists showed a few years ago that such an approach worked for adults looking at mug shots of candidates for the U.S. Congress. Now two economists at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland have extended the findings to children, using candidates in the 2002 French parliamentary election.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/226/3

In 1960 Kennedy won the TV debate and the election, except those who only heard the debate thought had Nixon won. Of course, the election was stolen anyway.

--Brant

[Selene]

Brant:

Ahh that beautiful Cook County Daley Machine! Equal to Margiotta's machine in Nassau County NY, the old pre 1930's Tammany Machine which controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O'Brien in 1932. and Mayor Curly of Boston who "...served in various municipal offices and one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1902-1903). He is noted for having been elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1904 while in prison, having been convicted of fraud. Curley and an associate, Thomas Curley (no relation) took the civil service exams for postmen for two men in their district to help them get the jobs with the federal government. Though the incident gave him a dark reputation in respectable circles, it aided his image in working class or poor circles because they saw him as a man willing to stick his neck out to help a poor man. [1] re-elected while he was in jail!"

"In substance, the candidates were much more evenly matched. Indeed, those who heard the first debate on the radio pronounced Nixon the winner. But the 70 million who watched television saw a candidate still sickly and obviously discomforted by Kennedy's smooth delivery and charisma. Those television viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Studies of the audience indicated that, among television viewers, Kennedy was perceived the winner of the first debate by a very large margin." http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/...nnedy-nixon.htm

However, was that true? This is from the NY Times 1996:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...753C1A960958260

Adam

[Chris Grieb]

Brant:

Ahh that beautiful Cook County Daley Machine! Equal to Margiotta's machine in Nassau County NY, the old pre 1930's Tammany Machine which controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O'Brien in 1932. and Mayor Curly of Boston who "...served in various municipal offices and one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1902-1903). He is noted for having been elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1904 while in prison, having been convicted of fraud. Curley and an associate, Thomas Curley (no relation) took the civil service exams for postmen for two men in their district to help them get the jobs with the federal government. Though the incident gave him a dark reputation in respectable circles, it aided his image in working class or poor circles because they saw him as a man willing to stick his neck out to help a poor man. [1] re-elected while he was in jail!"

"In substance, the candidates were much more evenly matched. Indeed, those who heard the first debate on the radio pronounced Nixon the winner. But the 70 million who watched television saw a candidate still sickly and obviously discomforted by Kennedy's smooth delivery and charisma. Those television viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Studies of the audience indicated that, among television viewers, Kennedy was perceived the winner of the first debate by a very large margin." http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/...nnedy-nixon.htm

However, was that true? This is from the NY Times 1996:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...753C1A960958260

Adam

Adam; The conventional wisdom is that Kennedy won the first debate by looking healthy. Yet my memory of the debate is that again and again Nixon was giving Kennedy the high ground. Nixon kept agreeing saying that Kennedy's goals were good but Nixon had the right way to reach those goals. At no time did Nixon say Kennedy's goal were wrong.