Debates as tests of character
"Character Trumps Policy for Voters," says an AP article reviewing the results of a poll that allowed respondents to name what mattered most to them when voting. Fifty-five percent named character traits, a third named issues, and fewer still mentioned experience, leadership, or intelligence.
Now the lower ranked items are not unimportant. In a close election, each category of voter is important. Furthermore, the variables are not independent. A stand on an issue can be a proxie for character. Nor is it clear how "leadership" is not a character trait.
But candidates, debate advisors, and questioners should think carefully about how a debate functions to reveal or create character in the minds of the voters. Perceptions of decisiveness and honesty can easily be influenced by a candidate's answer to an "issues" question.
Also relevant is the question of whom the debates are reaching. In presidential primaries or down ballot races, the viewer is more likely to be a higher information voter. In presidential debates bewteen the final candidates, lower information voters are the targets. I have not seen the cross-tabs, but would like to know how the answers vary by level of political involvement.
In any case, political debates should not be judged, as they often are, primarily on the basis of answers to issues questions.
Comments from those with research results that bear on the questions raised here are encouraged.
