Topics and participation in the CBS Democratic debate (November 2015)
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
Winner: Donald Trump (R) Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates |
Important dates • Nominating process • Ballotpedia's 2016 Battleground Poll • Polls • Debates • Presidential election by state • Ratings and scorecards |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 Have you subscribed yet?
Join the hundreds of thousands of readers trusting Ballotpedia to keep them up to date with the latest political news. Sign up for the Daily Brew.
|
This article analyzes the central themes of the Democratic presidential debate held on November 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. The transcript prepared by The Washington Post was used to measure candidate participation and audience engagement.[1] Footage from the debate was consulted where there were ambiguities in the text.
To compare the statistics of this debate to the previous Democratic debate, please see the analysis of topics and participation in the October 2015 CNN Democratic debate.
Segments
The second Democratic presidential debate featured 21 unique discussion segments covering a range of national security, economic and domestic issues. These discussion segments were measured by any shift in the theme of a discussion prompted by one of the moderators: John Dickerson, Nancy Cordes, Kevin Cooney and Kathie Obradovich.[2][3]
- Paris terrorist attacks
- The Obama administration's response to ISIS
- Factors contributing to the growth of ISIS
- America's role in combatting ISIS
- The term "radical Islam"
- Military force and congressional approval
- Syrian refugee crisis
- Tax increases
- Healthcare deductibles under Obamacare
- Border security
- Federal minimum wage
- Campaign finance and Wall Street reform
- Gun control
- Glass-Steagall Act
- Bernie Sanders' "political revolution"
- Hillary Clinton's email investigation
- Race relations
- Higher education reform
- Reforming Obamacare
- Crisis experience
- Closing statements
Although the debate was initially set to focus on economic issues, CBS News adjusted its theme following the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015. "Last night’s attacks are a tragic example of the kinds of challenges American presidents face in today’s world, and we intend to ask the candidates how they would confront the evolving threat of terrorism,” CBS News Vice President Christopher Isham announced prior to the debate.[4] A little more than one-third of the discussion segments dealt with terrorism or national security.
Overall participation
Participation in a segment was defined as 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.
Each candidate participated in at least 16 of the 21 discussion segments. Hillary Clinton participated in all but one discussion segment. That discussion segment featured questions directed solely at Bernie Sanders regarding his "political revolution" to combat corruption. With input in 16 discussion segments, Martin O'Malley contributed the least.
Candidate participation by behavior
Participation in the debate was also measured by the candidates' behavior at the start of each discussion segment. This study considered whether a candidate was initially prompted to speak during a discussion segment by a moderator or whether he or she independently engaged in the discussion segment by interrupting another candidate or calling on the moderator for permission to speak. A candidate's conduct after he or she joined a discussion segment was not considered.
Compared to the first Democratic presidential debate held on October 28, 2015, each candidate was slightly more aggressive. Nearly one-third of O'Malley's participation in the debate was the result of him interjecting. With three unsuccessful interjections, he was the only candidate who attempted to contribute to a discussion segment and was blocked from speaking substantively on the matter. Twice, moderator John Dickerson attributed this obstruction to the need for a commercial break, telling O'Malley, "Governor, you're breaking the rules. I'm sorry, we're going to have to cut for a commercial," and, "I'm sorry, governor. We've got to take a break or the machine breaks down."[1]
Candidate participation by segment vs. speaking time
According to Politico, Clinton spoke the most at 28.3 minutes. Sanders and O'Malley followed with 24.6 minutes and 17.6 minutes, respectively.[5]
The amount of time a candidate spoke did not necessarily align with the number of issues he or she covered during the debate. With three candidates, an equal distribution of participation would be 33.3 percent. O'Malley's participation in both number of discussion segments and speaking time was disproportionately limited.
Candidate participation by speaking order
This study also calculated the number of times a candidate spoke first, second or third during a discussion segment, whether prompted by a moderator with a question or invitation to rebut or by interjection.
Clinton and Sanders were generally called on first or second to answer questions. O'Malley was rarely asked to give his position on a topic before the other candidates.
Audience engagement
Audience engagement was measured by noting the instances of applause, cheering or laughter in The Washington Post's transcript. Footage from the debate was consulted where the text was ambiguous regarding which candidate the audience was responding to.
The live audience did not vocally react to the candidates until after discussion of the Paris terrorist attacks, ISIS, and the Syrian refugee crisis had finished. The discussion segments on gun control and Wall Street reform registered the most audience engagement. Individually, Clinton received the warmest response from the live audience, earning applause or laughter 17 times. O'Malley received the least with 7 instances.
Candidate speech analysis
|
|
|
See also
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
- Presidential candidates, 2016
- Presidential election, 2016/Polls
- 2016 presidential candidate ratings and scorecards
- Presidential election, 2016/Straw polls
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Washington Post, "The CBS Democratic debate transcript, annotated," November 15, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "CBS News, Twitter partner up for second Democratic debate," October 26, 2015
- ↑ Drake University, "'Face the Nation' to broadcast live from Drake University," November 4, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "CBS Shifts Emphasis of Democratic Debate to Reflect Paris Attacks," November 14, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "Who spoke the most?" November 14, 2015
| |||||||||||