Bracing for worse in the US economy

THE bustling scene outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) concealed somewhat the dark mood that Wall Street is down on its knees in these days of economic turmoil.

Cameras were everywhere, mostly in the hands of tourists eager to capture the nearby huge statue of George Washington on the steps leading to Federal Hall, where he was sworn in as the first US president in 1789. The current president, however, enjoys no such popularity.

Two protesters stood next to the statue, wearing white masks and black T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Arrest Bush” and carrying signs decrying that “Greed Kills.”

It was lunch time on Wednesday and media people were all over the place, seeking interviews with Wall Street executives and the demonstrators.

“We are a group of angry people,” one of the protesters said.

Another bunch of demonstrators displayed sardonic humour, calling out: “Your house is our house. Your debts are your debts. Thank you for paying your taxes, America. There is a crisis, but trust us! Give us US$700bil (RM2.4tril) and we promise you the sky won’t fall.”

One man chipped in: “I’m just looking for a soft landing.”

Two men who carried a banner proclaiming that no planes hit the World Trade Centre tried to get a slice of the attention. They hovered around an interviewee as he spoke in front of TV cameras, but were soon shooed away by the journalist conducting the Q and A.

Most of the business-suited types declined to be interviewed. Some of them explained that their employers had forbidden them to the press.

“I am by nature an optimist, but I have to be realistic, too,” one of them said, declining to identify himself or name his work place, merely saying he works for a financial institution.

“I think we’re in for a long recession, but what do I know? I’m not an economist,” he shrugged.

The US$700bil bailout plan, to him, was a bitter pill that was essential for everybody.

“It’s mortifying and there will be side effects. There isn’t going to be sunshine after that, but there is not much of a choice for now,” he said.

He has been extra careful with his spending but the mood around him was depressing, he said, “and it’s not just Wall Street but Main Street as well.”

Even the highly regarded practice of ringing the opening and closing bell at the NYSE has been marred by the dampened mood, according to The New York Times on Wednesday, which estimated that about 100 million people would usually watch the daily tradition on TV.

Headline names such as Robert Downey Jr (“Iron Man”) rang the bell in April and Michael Phelps did the honours last month.

But now, as the report noted: “Who wants to ring in — or out — the next black day on Wall Street?”

Yet, hope floats for others such as 19-year-old Wendy Francis, a visiting Jamaican who is bullish of her chances of making New York her home.

“I’ve heard so much about the economic crisis but I hope to return and make a life of myself here, as a nurse,” she said.

A Vietnamese who runs a fruit juice stand near the NYSE seems to face no downturn in business. There was a steady flow of customers ordering smoothies from him.

“Business is so-so,” he said, then promptly declared that he had lived in Malaysia once. “I stayed at the Sungai Besi camp for four years.”

This year, Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year) coincided with Hari Raya.

The NYT reported that some worshippers troubled by the financial crisis often came out of the synagogues during services to check their phone for messages on the latest on the market turmoil.

As for New York City Rescue Mission, which runs a soup kitchen for the poor and homeless, the non-profit organisation is keeping its fingers crossed that donations would keep flowing in.

“We are overwhelmingly funded by the private sector and individuals; 96% of our budget is from private sources, foundations and corporations while the other 4% is from government sources,” NYCRM public relations manager Joe Little said in a telephone interview.

The economic fallout, he said, had not affected them yet “although we foresee it happening in the coming months as more people get laid off.”

Since 1872, NYCRM has been offering food, shelter, clothing, counselling and spiritual hope for the needy. It has 100 beds and prepares food for 400 people daily on a US$4mil (RM14mil) annual budget.

“We have seen a multitude of ups and downs. There was the Great Depression, 911, but we have continued to serve the poor,” Little said.

Its biggest fund-raising event of the year takes places between now and next month, when people are perhaps more in a giving mood as the holiday season beckons.

“We are gritting our teeth to see how it goes,” he said.

Money wants what it can’t buy

SHE’S the voice of Manhattan women, the soul-mate who understands their see-saw love lives, the queen who knows all about shoe porn and toxic bachelors.

Candace Bushnell, in person, is a lovely sight and perhaps another symbol of the blurred line between fact and fiction.

Creator of the awesome foursome in Sex and the City, she was at Barnes & Noble in Union Square on Monday evening for a reading of her latest book One Fifth Avenue.

That’s the address of a grand Art Deco apartment building on Fifth Avenue, inhabited by the social haves and coveted by the ambitious have-nots.

“Real-estate envy is universal,” Bushnell said. Even in the earlier days, “somebody realises that somebody else’s cave is bigger.”

A roof over your head is basic but much more so in New York City, where home ownership is premium.

“It’s wired into our DNA about seeking shelter,” Bushnell said, “but for some people, the more glamourous the shelter, the better.”

By using the venerable address as the setting of this book, Bushnell has finally acknowledged that the one thing more significant than sex in this city is real estate — and the two are, in more cases than not, intertwined, according to the book review in The New York Observer.

That newspaper, by the way, was the start of Bushnell’s Sex and the City column in 1994 that led to the TV and movie versions.

Bushnell seems like any other writer who aspires to be a great author.

“If I could be Evelyn Waugh, my life would be perfect,” she recalled telling herself when she was younger, as she had deeply admired the British author.

These days, Bushnell has been compared to Henry James and Edith Wharton. “That’s really flattering and nice but they write much better than I do,” she said.

Last week, Page Six Magazine put her on the cover wearing a US$5,500 (RM18,700) Bill Blass dress, calling her “Big Apple Babe” and quoted the “former party girl” as saying that “there’s nothing harder than being single”.

Bushnell, who will hit the big Five-0 in December, acknowledged to the magazine she had had botox treatment and that she was not the least bothered about being labelled a cougar. Hubby, a ballet dancer who is 10 years younger, was at Monday’s book reading with her. They married six years ago.

The audience that evening, mostly women, evidently adored her. They devoured her latest book while waiting for her arrival.

“I have loved her since Sex and the City. I like the fact that she is not afraid to show the weaknesses and the strengths of women,” said Dynelle Skinner, a 32-year-old in-house PR executive for a cosmetic company.

Through Bushnell’s writings and the TV series, Skinner said, she had learned to be more creative and bold; both in fashion and sexuality. “We are not afraid to approach men. We can be romantic, we can be aloof.”

Furthermore, Skinner acknowledged a problem with shoe shopping.

“There are times I would tell myself that the bills can wait. I just have to buy that pair of shoes!” she said, laughing.

Bushnell told her fans that her mother’s death from breast cancer led to a period of mourning. “I was depressed, thinking about life and loss, and what life added up to,” she explained.

“Here in New York, the old is replaced by the new. People come to New York. Everybody has a story. You need to figure out what your story is, who you are, and where you are on the ladder of success.”

One Fifth Avenue, she said, was an actual building which she used to walk past, fantasising that she would live there one day.

“Fantasies do nourish you. It keeps people going but as you grow older, you might wonder whether it is worth it,” she said.

Her favourite character in her latest book is the 43-year-old Mindy Gooch who, as head of the apartment board, is so ambitious and hell-bent in wanting it all that “she forgot to smell the roses along the way”.

Through her readings of classics, Bushnell said she found that people had not really changed. “All these are stories about people in the city. I am struck by the similarity of people then and now.”

In a way, that means that people have never learned their lessons. And, in the pursuit for social prominence, a character in One Fifth Avenue put it well: Money wants what it can’t buy. Class and talent.

It's the economy, stupid

DUSK was settling in but the mood at Columbia University was bright as the campus awaited for America’s two most watched men.

The Ivy League school was playing host to a forum for the ServiceNation Summit on Sept 11; Barack Obama and John McCain would discuss volunteerism and national service.

A large screen was erected near Low Library. The crowd of students began to swell long before the simulcast of the forum began.

One female undergraduate posed with a life-size cut-out of the Democratic contender. Others clapped whenever Obama’s name was mentioned by a speaker.

The mood was infectious; there was hardly a poker-face in sight.

“It’s predominantly for Obama,” Tara Machen, a final year Arts undergraduate, said of the campus population.

But, she assured, there had been no fights between Obama and McCain supporters among the students. “We enjoyed the diversity of views,” she maintained.

Youthful enthusiasm aside, the mood of the country remains negative.

Neil Newhouse, a co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, said their latest survey found that at least 67% of Americans felt that their great nation was on the wrong track and George W. Bush was getting the thumbs down as President.

As a pollster, Newhouse has done research in countries such as Bulgaria, Jamaica and Venezuela “but I have not had numbers that are as negative as what we are seeing currently.”

The economy is the priority of the American electorate now, he said, instead of Iraq which was once the burning issue at hand.

In a sense, the Democrat Party has an edge over its rivals.

“The biggest doubt about McCain is that he will continue Bush’s policies,” said Stan Greenberg, CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, who has served as pollster for leaders like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela.

Look to the 2006 US midterm elections, he said, as a backdrop. “It was like an earthquake then when the Republicans lost control of the House Representatives and the Senate.”

Prior to Monday’s collapse of Lehman Brothers, Greenberg said Obama had a mere three point advantage over McCain.

“Obama has energised the young people but I believe that economic issues are not his passion,” he said.

Hillary Clinton, for comparison’s sake, had eyed more the blue-collar workers.

Both Newhouse and Greenberg were at a discussion on “Post-Convention, Pre-Debates: A Look at the Race to the White House in Key Battleground States” organised by the Washington Foreign Press Centre on Tuesday.

The Republican camp, according to Newhouse, had been hit by “Palin mania”.

“I can’t tell you how excited they are. She is getting numbers that comes to almost unanimous in terms of polling,” he said.

Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, has the highest positive rating for a vice-president contender since Al Gore in 1992. But the question remains: Will the numbers stay strong for her?

“So, the vice-presidential debate on Oct 2 between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will be a lot of fun,” he remarked.

The last couple of weeks revealed “a clear sense that McCain has the wind at his back,” he said.

Polls conducted during the first week of the month showed that he was gaining ground more than Obama.

But neither Obama nor McCain was particularly strong on the economy.

“The first one who finds a voice on this (the fall of Lehman) in the next 72 hours will have an advantage,” Newhouse said.

In a way, both candidates “even each other out,” he added. According to him, Obama has his biggest edge “ vote for change" but the Democrat’s main weakness, his inexperience, is McCain’s biggest strength.

Still, Newhouse refused to read the tea leaves for the outcome of the battle for America’s highest office.

“It is still up for grabs. This is an extraordinary election with more twists and turns to come. Issues have zig-zagged. This is not a campaign that goes on a straight and narrow path,” he said, “so I don’t even dare to predict it.”

Let’s see who’s voted off

IT’S been called the ultimate reality show, Made-in-America (where else), and as the world awaits who gets voted off, the glitter of the main star attraction seems a little less shiny for now.

Democratic contender Barack Obama, taunted by the John McCain campaign as the biggest celebrity on earth, isn’t occupying the prime spotlight currently; a mother of five from Alaska seems to have stolen the thunder, at least for the moment.

But a largely pro-Democrat audience who turned up for a Tuesday talk, Inside the News: Race and the Race, organised by The New York Times, was clearly rooting for their man.

“It’s not that we are desperate for a black president, but we want justice,” said an African-American woman during the Q and A.

Alluding to last week’s Republican National Convention which was attended mostly by white delegates, she asked: “Was that America?”

To her, the Democrat Party was more reflective of the diversity of the United States.

But in reality, there are only 10 states that are in play in the general election. These are the swing states, among which are Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

“We are not seeing the campaign the way the swing states see it,” said NYT op-ed columnist Gail Collins. For example, New York, a true-blue state, will hardly see Obama and his Republican nemesis John McCain in the next few weeks before election day.

The two African-Americans on the panel – professor of humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr and NYT columnist Bob Herbert – felt that Obama had not “connected” with the working-class American yet.

According to Gates, it was too simplistic to dismiss a white voter as racist if he did not pick a black candidate.

The point is: create empathy and convince people that he is on their side; these voters are waiting to be wooed.

“It is incumbent upon Obama to do what John F. Kennedy did in West Virginia,” he said, turning to 1960 history when Kennedy, a Catholic, won the support of the mostly Protestant state.

Herbert, declaring that he did not trust most polls, said he believed that Obama was even further behind McCain than was reflected in the surveys now.

He said Obama must pursue the working-class American who has to struggle in these days of an economic slump.

“He has not done so in a compelling way. There is still a certain stiffness and reservation in him, an almost professorial approach from him,” he said.

In that sense, Gates said, “looking back, Hillary Clinton would have made a better candidate.”

“The working class responded very well to her. Obama hasn’t found his voice yet,” he said.

Both panellists – Obama supporters – felt that although Hillary seemed cold at the beginning of the primary campaign she later became very effective in conveying the message that she felt the pain of those struggling over bread and butter issues.

“She would have also done better in distinguishing her job and policies from McCain’s,” Herbert said.

Still, it was a credit to the Obama campaign for succeeding in snatching the nomination from Hillary, which was hers to lose.

Obama, Herbert said, should have however steamrolled ahead now with his adorable family, projecting the image that he knew about raising a family and getting to college.

The US media has scrutinised speeches made at the recently concluded party conventions and found that Republicans mentioned God most often, followed by words such as taxes, change and business.

Democrats, on the other hand, spoke most frequently about “change”. Other oft-used terms were McCain, energy, Bush and jobs.

Gates, on his part, found it odd that Obama made no mention of Martin Luther King Jr during his address at the party convention, although that day was the 45th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

These days, nothing about the candidates escapes public scrutiny. Body language is one favourite subject.

“When Sarah Palin and John McCain make an appearance together, there’s always a brief hug, but no kissing,” late-night show host David Letterman joked. “It’s just like Bill and Hillary.”

Democrats, who have been chanting “eight is enough”, simply can’t wait to bid farewell to the two terms of the Bush administration.

Will it be goodbye Bush, hello Obama? Americans will decide in less than eight weeks.

Sarah Barracuda is fair game

IN Desperate Housewives, Bree Hodge faked a pregnancy to protect her teenage daughter Danielle, who gave birth to a boy.

Wisteria Lane shenanigans, apparently, has a mirror site in the wild, wild world of rumour-mongering that is now targeting Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Suddenly, all the buzz on last week’s Democratic National Convention, when Barack Obama was crowned the first African-American presidential nominee, seemed so yesterday.

Within two days of Palin’s appointment as the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, the chatter began that her five-month-old son was not hers, but the child of her unwed eldest daughter Bristol.

The rumour was quashed when news came that 17-year-old Bristol is pregnant and Palin is due to become a grandma at 44, just in time for Christmas, as they say.

Americans have been riveted with guilty pleasure over tales about Palin’s past. She was a former local beauty queen and was once a fearsome basketball player, with the nickname Sarah Barracuda.

At the age of 24, Palin eloped with her boyfriend as they were cash-strapped for a wedding.

Now, her significant half has not been spared the public scrutiny either. Her husband, the “First Dude”, reportedly did not complete his degree and was arrested for drunk driving 22 years ago.

There was an account, too, of how her Wikipedia entry was somewhat mysteriously spiced up just hours before the official announcement of her vice-president candidacy.

And what about Bristol’s teenage boyfriend? His MySpace page has been removed and reporters who went to his mother’s house, according to an Anchorage local daily, found that the place was just like any other Alaskan home – decorated with moose and caribou antlers.

Nothing has been spared in the search for skeletons in Palin’s closet; even her social security number has allegedly been stolen. Entertainment magazines which usually put celebrities first have placed her on their cover, though not necessarily in a positive light.

“No one heard of her before last week,” said Kelly McBride, The Poynter Institute’s ethics group leader.

“Now, people are digging deeper because you’re talking about someone who has the potential to become the vice-president. The stakes can’t get higher than that.”

However, McBride felt that the media scrutiny should be in the right manner, to protect people such as Palin’s children.

“We must minimise harm to them. These matters must be handled with care,” she said, noting also that the twin daughters of President George W. Bush received much coverage last time for their antics.

Much of the public debate has focussed on whether Palin, as a mother of five, can handle the heat that the job of vice-president brings.

They ponder whether she should have taken up the VP offer, as it could mean lesser time for her family, especially her youngest son who has Down Syndrome.

“Certainly, these are questions that would not be asked if the candidate is not a woman,” McBride said. “But in reality, women play a different role than men.”

(American society, in a way, is still traditional. Marriage announcements in The New York Times would include whether the bride is keeping her name or not. This, surely, is no longer a question that arises anymore for Malaysian women.)

Just like Hillary Clinton – critics poked fun at the way she laughed – Palin is now under the microscope for things such as her hair and spectacles.

As one TV news commenter put it, unfortunately some people found it intolerable that a woman with big hair and librarian glasses could be governing them one day.

But even in the blue state of New York where Obama fans are aplenty, Palin’s family problems merely made her more human to them. To them, it does not speak lesser of her as a mother or an individual.

“So what if her eldest daughter is pregnant? Her children has nothing to do with it. Lots of American girls get knocked up at an early age,” said Kimberly Blackette, a law student and Obama supporter.

Palin, in an e-mail sent out to supporters on Aug 30, wrote: “Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case for me.

“I never set out to run for office. But life has taken me on a course that first led to the Alaska governor’s office and now the country’s first female Republican vice presidential candidate.”

Palin power, as the Republicans called it, resonated the following day after her acceptance speech at the party convention.

For those on her side of the fence, one headline went to the extent of saying that “a star is born”.

And messages of encouragement have appeared everywhere from T-shirts to thongs in Alaska. One declares: “Our mama beats your Obama.”

Obamania reaches fever pitch as all eyes follow historic event

THE sky was cloudy but it was business as usual on 125th Street, the lively commercial area of Harlem where street vendors selling incense, shea butter and DVDs ply their trade alongside large chain stores such as H&M.

At first glance, Obamania was not in sight. Except for a sidewalk stall selling Obama T-shirts, there were no other telltale signs.

But chat up the locals, and a different picture emerges in this neighbourhood known as the capital of black America.

“It’s the biggest thing that we have been talking about so far,” said Monica James, during a lunch break from her 12-week course to become a medical assistant.

Though she had no time to spare for the just-concluded Beijing Olympics, “I’m surely going to take a bit of time off in between studies to watch the convention tonight,” she said on Monday, the start of the four-day Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Colorado.

Despite the DNC sometimes being derided as a party for the Democrats to celebrate themselves, most Americans did not want to miss what people like James called a historic event.

Cable networks tapped on the demand for political updates as the country witnessed the first African-American to secure a major party nomination bid for the Oval Office. Thus, no details seemed too small, no news deemed too frivolous.

There was an account of how the Obama campaign searched for weather reports of the past 20 years to be sure of no rain on the day that he delivered his acceptance speech in the football stadium.

Fox News Channel, which devoted almost every other minute to the DNC, provided a “visual timeline” on the hairline of Barack Obama’s running mate Joseph R. Biden Jr. The cable network showed images of how his hair (or lack of it) had changed through the years courtesy of hair transplants.

According to The New York Times, he got the news that he was selected as the party vice-president nominee while at the dentist as his wife went for a root canal.

Others remembered Biden’s remarks last year when he described Obama as a “clean African-American”, which led to a mini-controversy then – was he implying that others did not bathe regularly?

Then there was the “Fox Flashback” on the day Al Gore accepted the party’s nomination for the 2000 presidential election.

Nothing escaped the cameras when Hillary Clinton made her speech on Tuesday night. They recorded every expression of hubby Bill Clinton and Barack’s wife Michelle Obama as Hillary addressed the party, while political analysts of all stripes scrutinised every word she said, or rather, what she did not say that night.

Fashion statements were in, too. There was a brief segment on how Clinton’s staff tested pantsuits of different colours against the blue backdrop of the stage. In the end, as everyone throughout the world witnessed on CNN, Clinton wore a striking tangerine ensemble that evening.

Nielsen Media Research estimated that at least 22 million Americans were in front of their TV on Monday night when Michelle Obama was the star attraction. The numbers did not include those who followed the event online.

Viewership went up even higher the following night with 26 million people watching Hillary as she urged her “sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits” to back Obama. A staggering number no doubt.

For comparison’s sake, almost 28 million people tuned in to NBC’s closing ceremony broadcast of the Beijing Games last Sunday, the highest number of any closing Olympics since 1976.

In May, 31.7 million viewers watched David Cook crowned the latest American Idol.

A day after her speech, the Obama campaign sent out a mass e-mail signed merely “Barack” with the subject heading “Did you see Michelle?”

“Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. You have to see it to believe it,” Barack said in the e-mail, which included a video link of her speech.

If viewership is all in the millions, there has also been much talk about the millionaires in Barack and his Republican rival John McCain.

McCain, to the delight of his enemies and critics, appeared unsure about the number of houses he owned during an interview with a news website.

Depending on who you listen to, the Republican presidential nominee could own four, seven or eight homes. Blogs and news reports have since noted his expensive shoes – a US$520 (RM1,760) leather Salvatore Ferragamo.

Other millions in the news: Obama has raised US$339mil (RM1.1bil) so far for his campaign; McCain only US$136mil (RM460.2mil).

And so, out of this historic DNC are stories which are often incredulous and offbeat, so gleefully reported by media such as the New York Post which ran a column named “Hee Haw”, illustrated with a caricature of the Democrat Party symbol of a donkey.

Head to head before polls

DURING the 1992 presidential debate between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, the senior Bush was so eager for it to be over that he kept looking at his watch.

It was all captured on camera, author Paul Slansky notes in his book Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots – Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics.

Presidential debates provide Americans, in fact, the world, a close-up view of the candidates battling for the White House.

A slip-up here or a boo-boo there can dent the candidate's campaign. Inane remarks and clueless replies will be revisited again and again by stand-up comedians, bloggers and the press.

Slansky pointed out how George W. Bush stated the obvious prior to his debate with Al Gore in 2000 by saying: “I view this as a chance for people to get an impression of me on a stage debating my opponent.”

The first presidential debate for the 2008 general election will take place next month at the University of Mississippi.

Barack Obama will spar, again, with John McCain on Oct 7; their third and final duel takes place two weeks later.

The debates are organised by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a non-profit and non-partisan Washington-based corporation that was established in 1987.

“We’ve done all of the presidential and vice-presidential debates since then,” said executive director Janet H. Brown.

Preparation for the 2008 debates began way back in December 2006, she said, “so there’s about 20 months worth of work that has gone into the plan”.

It is, after all, a huge, live TV production where mishaps must be prevented, although sometimes they are unavoidable.

For instance, a power failure interrupted the debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976. The sound went dead and “Mr Ford and Mr Carter stood on the stage in silence for 27 minutes”, she recalled.

Other planning entail picking the sites, the dates and the debate format. This year, more time will be given to questions.

The moderator will pose a question and after a candidate replies the moderator will pursue the topic in conversational style with the candidates.

“I think this will help viewers and listeners understand in greater depth the candidates’ positions on important topics,” Brown told a briefing at the Foreign Press Centre.

Moderators picked for the different events are PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer, NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw and CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer.

Brown listed three criteria for the selection – their extensive understanding of the candidates, the campaign and election issues; their long experience with live, hard news on TV; and their understanding that their job is to facilitate the conversation and to focus on the candidates.

That, basically, ruled out prominent news anchors for the job.

“The reason that we have had an informal policy against them is that they are news celebrities, if you will. In the past, the public has felt as though it was almost like having another famous personality on the stage,” she said.

For the first time, the CPD will also collaborate with MySpace through a new website, MyDebates.org, to engage a wider audience and to have online discussions on the debates.

According to Brown, at least 160 people would file with the Federal Election Commission as candidates for president of the United States in any given year.

Most of these people would want to be included in the debates to gain visibility.

“But when you have election campaigns that go on as long as they do in this country, by the time you get to the last eight weeks of the campaign, which is when our debates take place, the public wants to see a very small group of individuals from whom the next president is going to be chosen,” she said.

How influential or important are these debates to the voting public?

“For several cycles now, exit polls have shown that more people use the debates as an important factor in making their voting decisions than any other single factor,” she said.

This does not mean that the debates will necessarily change the people’s mind about a candidate.

But the surveys, conducted by TV networks, showed that “people rate them as the single most important factor in how they decide to cast their votes”.

Take the 1988 debate when Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis was asked by the moderator whether he would favour the death penalty for the killer if his wife were raped and murdered.

Instead of expressing outrage for conjuring up such a tragic scenario, Dukakis responded without emotion, saying that there was no evidence that capital punishment was a deterrent.

“And with that, any chance of a Dukakis presidency was crushed like a bug,” Slansky said.