Book Alert / Inside the Presidential Debates

Inside the Presidential Debates -- Their Improbable Past and Promising Future by Newton N. Minow and Craig L. Lamay, Foreword by Vartan Gregorian, Chicago UP '08, $22.50, 219 pages, ISBN #0226530418. Index, notes, six appendices.

Newton Minow is uniquely qualified to write the history of America's general election presidential debates. In 1960, he was assistant counsel to Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, who proposed the concept, served as cochair of the debates in 1976 and 1980, then helped create and is now vice-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates. All of which is both good and bad. No one has a better grasp of the inside baseball elements of the debates as they evolved, but he can't pretend journalistic objectivity either.

As a JFK wunderkind in 1961, Minow became the activist chair of the Federal Communications Commission before he turned 35; nearly a half-century later, he's still actively practicing law. He relates the debate saga with long-time collaborator Craig LaMay.

In this slim volume, readers can revisit such oft-told tales as the fact that radio listeners to the first presidential debate in 1960 thought Nixon had bested Kennedy based on his command of the facts while TV viewers felt the tanned, relaxed Kennedy had won hands-down over his opponent, who looked haggard, with a five o'clock shadow and a shirt collar too large for his neck. There are new tales as well, but the most useful takeaway for readers is learning how the debates came to be and the creative efforts involved in making sure they survived to the present day.

The immediate hurdle the early debate planners faced was how to deal with the legal doctrine, as old as radio itself, that required broadcasters to give equal time to all candidates in any candidate forum. Obviously, with a dozen candidates sometimes competing in the general election, this would be unwieldy at best. The creative solution was to carve out an exception for a debate as a news event rather than an educational forum. This would allow the two leading heavyweights to battle it out without having to give equal time to the also rans.

Both major parties, of course, would have to agree to take advantage of this exception, which they did in 1960, since no incumbent was running. But in later years, incumbents feared giving a leg up to their opponents by appearing with them on a level playing field, and they opted out, so debates didn't become regular quadrennial affairs until 1976. Thanks to Minow and company, they're likely to continue indefinitely.