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Politico: First 30 Minutes of Debate Will Matter Most
Monday, September 26, 2016 09:39 AM
By: Joe Crowe
The most important part of the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is the first 30 minutes, according to an analysis by Politico.
Debate coaches and campaign strategists said the first minutes of the debate are crucial and real-time response on social media matter the most.
"You have your maximum audience at its most impressionable stage in the first minutes of the debate," veteran Republican debate coach Mari Maseng Will said.
Debate professionals call the first minutes of a debate "the primacy effect," the idea that whatever is heard first will be remembered best, according to Politico.
"In debates and in trial work, there's the doctrine of primacy. If you do a good job—or a really bad job — it will stay with the viewer," according to Judd Gregg, who helped George W. Bush with debate preparation in 2000 and 2004.
Southern Illinois University debate director Todd Graham said, "The first half of the debate is absolutely the most important."
Politico included the example of Ronald Reagan in 1984 saying, "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." The analysis also noted an example from the Republican presidential debates, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pointed out Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's repetition of talking points, saying, "There it is. The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody."
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