Blue Like You

Archive for October 5th, 2008

Stephen Taylor has a great video from the English leadership debate -  The shadowboxing opposition. Don’t miss it!

Someone should tell the opposition leaders that when you use the same word over and over, it tends to lose its effectiveness - much like certain swear words.

And just like swearing, it reflects poorly on the speaker - suggesting a certain shallowness and lack of imagination.

(Or - You think it’s easy to run leadership debates?)

Debate Moderator Steve Paikin gives us some insight into what it’s like to run a leadership debate on national television - Behind the scenes at the debate:

…But where The Agenda on TVO has roughly 100,000 viewers a night, a leaders’ debate can have as many as three million. If you screw up, your career is probably over.

Which is why I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a month.

Frankly, I don’t know how the leaders do it. The pressure on them is enormous. At 8:55 p.m. Thursday night, there we were, the six of us sitting on the set at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, trying to remain calm…

( . . . )

…Something the television viewer at home doesn’t see are the looks I get from the leaders, indicating they have something to say. Duceppe was constantly gesturing. Literally every two minutes. Once, I had to point to my watch as if to say, you’ve had enough time, I’ve got to get the others in.

An angry look

A couple of times, Dion shot me an angry look, as if to say, don’t forget about me. But he also thanked me twice for letting him have additional time to respond to attacks from other leaders….

O.K. Steve. Maybe we were a bit hard on you. Sorry about that.

But isn’t Harper was supposed to be the angry one?

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Update: And a bit more insight into Harper’s frame of mind during the debates:

…Personally, he says he’s kept up his energy by finding time to rest. Unlike the other leaders, Harper has taken every Sunday on this campaign off to spend in Ottawa with his family.

"There have been only two nights on this campaign I haven’t had a good night’s sleep - the two nights after the debate," Harper said. "This was how I was in school. I always slept before exams. I could never sleep after exams because I always got so keyed up. I can’t get back down again."

And that’s what led to his late-night viewing of the vice-presidential debate.

"I actually got of bed and watched it at 3 a.m."