Topics and participation in the CNN Democratic debate (October 2015)
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This article analyzes the central themes of the Democratic presidential debate held on October 13, 2015, and how the moderators and candidates engaged with each subject and each other.
Segments
The October Democratic presidential debate featured 24 unique segments, including the introductory and closing statements, and touched on a range of political, domestic and national security issues. These segments were measured by any shift in the discussion prompted by one of the moderators: Dana Bash, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and Juan Carlos López.
- Introductions
- Electability
- Gun control
- Russia & Syria
- Military intervention
- 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack
- Military service
- Greatest national security threat
- Clinton's private email server
- Black Lives Matter movement
- Regulation of financial institutions
- Student loan reform and Social Security
- Immigration reform
- Veterans' healthcare
- NSA surveillance
- Edward Snowden
- Contrast with Obama administration
- Clinton as an establishment candidate
- Climate change
- Mandatory paid leave
- Legalization of marijuana
- Bipartisan compromise
- Greatest political enemy
- Closing statements
Overall participation
Participation in a segment was defined by a substantive comment related to the segment's topic. Jokes and attempts to gain permission from a moderator to speak were not considered participatory speech acts. In some instances, candidates who participated in a segment diverted from the prompted topic.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) spoke during all but one segment. He was also the only candidate to receive a segment prompt from a moderator that no one else was asked to address. Those two segments covered veterans' healthcare and bipartisan compromise.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed Sanders closely, joining the discussion in 21 segments. Former Gov. Martin O'Malley (Md.) and former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) participated in 17 segments and 14 segments, respectively. Former Gov. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) discussed the fewest issues, speaking in only half of the segments.
Candidate participation by behavior
Participation in the debate was also measured by the candidate's behavior during each segment. This study considered whether a candidate was initially prompted to speak during a segment by a moderator or whether he or she independently engaged in the segment by interrupting another candidate or calling on the moderator for permission to speak.
Compared to the Republican presidential debate held on September 16, 2015, the Democratic candidates were far less aggressive in interrupting their fellow candidates or the moderators in an attempt to join a discussion segment for the first time. Only O'Malley and Webb did so, with Webb speaking out without moderator prompting during three different discussion segments.
Candidate participation by speaking time
CNN, Politico and The New York Times all reported on the number of minutes each candidate spoke.[1][2][3] Although the reported totals varied up to two minutes between each organization's measure of candidate speaking times, Clinton definitively spoke the most, followed by Sanders, O'Malley, and Webb. Chafee spoke the least, talking about a third less than Clinton did.
During the debate, Webb protested on five separate occasions that he had far less speaking time than the other candidates. He said he found CNN's debate format "frustrating because unless somebody mentions my name I can't get into the discussion." Webb spoke approximately 15 minutes – half the time Clinton did.[4]
Candidate participation by segment vs. speaking time
The amount of time a candidate spoke did not necessarily align with the number of issues he or she covered during the debate. For example, although Sanders spoke nearly four minutes less than Clinton by CNN's measure, Sanders engaged in a greater number of segment topics than she did.
Candidate participation by speaking order
This study also calculated the number of times a candidate was asked to speak first, second, third, fourth or fifth during each segment topic. This was measured by noting the order in which the moderators prompted each candidate to join a discussion segment with a question or invitation to rebut.
Clinton and Sanders were generally called on first or second to answer questions. Chafee was also frequently called on first. Webb was rarely asked to give his position on a topic before other candidates. Approximately two-thirds of his participation in the debate came speaking last or second-to-last.
Audience engagement
Audience engagement was measured by noting the instances of applause, cheering or laughter in CNN's transcript of the debate. Footage from the debate was consulted where it was ambiguous in the text who the audience was responding to. Multiple expressions of positive audience engagement during one speech act were marked as a single instance of audience engagement. Sanders received the warmest response from the live audience, making 21 points the crowd positively responded to. Clinton followed with 19 instances of positive audience engagement. Outside of their introductory and closing statements, Chafee and Webb barely engaged the crowd.
Candidate speech analysis
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See also
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "The Democratic debate by the numbers," October 14, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "The Democratic presidential debate, by the numbers," October 13, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "First Democratic Debate 2015: Highlights and Analysis," October 13, 2015
- ↑ CNN, "CNN Democratic Debate – Full Transcript," accessed October 14, 2015
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