OPINION
Sept. 26, 2018–Democratic nominee Ben Jealous committed a terrible faux pas in Maryland’s only gubernatorial debate of the year: He ignored the lesson of Richard Nixon’s monumental error in the first-ever 1960 presidential debate.
The image you project in these televised political confrontations is all-important. First impressions are especially critical.
Jealous’ History Lesson The one and only debate: challenger Ben Jealous (left) and Gov. Larry Hogan
In the minds of many voters, a candidate’s initial appearance forms a genetic imprint far more potent that his or her words.
In Jealous’ case, he needed to remember what happened to Nixon in that first, nightmarish debate. Had he done so, Jealous wouldn’t have fallen into that same, self-made trap.
Nixon wore no theatrical make-up on that fateful evening, exactly 58 years ago today.
Like Jealous, Nixon was a man with “heavy afternoon beard growth,” as Theodore H. White explained in his landmark best-seller, “The Making of the President 1960.” Under intensely hot studio lighting, Nixon needed a professional’s cosmetician’s touch “to tone down his dark beard stubble on the screen.”
Call it hubris, stubbornness or contempt for the extraneous details of a debate, Nixon that night ended up looking more like an unshaven thug than a candidate for president.
Stubble Trouble
On Monday night, Jealous came across in his debate much the same way: On the TV screen, his afternoon stubble was fully revealed — especially on large-screen, high-definition television sets.
It was not the kind of first impression a politician wants to make when it’s his only shot to sway a large viewing audience.
Like Nixon, jealous came across as tense, nervous and ill at ease. Compare that to the relaxed, easy-going demeanor of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, particularly in the early minutes of the debate when first impressions count.
It was not unlike the contrast between Nixon and John F. Kennedy in that first-ever debate.
JFK left no detail to chance, switching from a too-bright, white shirt to a more telegenic blue shirt before airtime. His make-up was on target, as was his dark business suit that looked ideal against the gray backdrop. Contrast that with Nixon’s light suit, which “faded into a fuzzed outline” against the light-gray background, White noted.
Jealous did win the battle of the neckties on Monday with a day-glo blue winner. But his tall, hefty physique was magnified by the magic of TV. Combined with his all-too-present dark beard stubble, his discomfort in front of the cameras, his slightly disheveled hair and his glowering anger, Jealous came across as a politician not ready for prime time.
Re-launch Needed
He went into the debate far behind in the polls, needing a huge boost to re-launch his campaign after a summer of elementary-school political mistakes.
Instead, Jealous got into too many argumentative back-and-forths with Hogan, a battle of facts and figures that confused rather than enlightened voters.
Jealous also got way too wonkish.
For instance, only a handful of viewers had any inkling what Jealous meant by voicing support for “21st-century ag hubs” in Maryland. For the uninitiated, this concept ties home computers in agricultural communities into a single hub so farmers can exchange ideas and information.
Jealous needed to lay out a concise, easy-to-grasp theme for voters. Instead, he tried to tear down Hogan’s record, brick by brick.
This was a non-starter, since Hogan has been a go-along to get-along governor, who has made incremental progress on issues. That’s hard to attack, especially if you are shouting, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” in the midst of a vibrant economy.
Promises, Promises
What we heard, yet again, was Jealous’ stump rhetoric: Pie-in-the-sky promises with enormous price tags — universal pre-kindergarten, 29% pay raises for teachers, billions more for education, universal health care, releasing 30% of the state’s prison population, spending extra billions on mass transit, creating new jobs, ending the opioid epidemic, reducing crime — all while lowering the sales tax.
Not that Hogan walked away from the debate as a glorious victor.
He got testy at times, but managed to regain his composure with a chuckle or smile. He nearly lost his temper when Jealous repeatedly accused him of lying. He offered no new vision for the future other than “more of the same.”
Jealous should have won this debate.
He’s easily the better public speaker.
He’s smarter and quicker on his feet.
He’s energetic, with a heartbreaking family story that should win him a fair hearing.
But nothing clicked for him at Monday’s debate.
Nixon’s Fallout
The same thing happened to Nixon in 1960. After that disastrous first debate, the vice president’s lead in the polls vanished. “Gloom. . .descended on Republican leaders around the country.” His campaign sagged.
Kennedy became an instant sensation.
The next day, White noted, “there was a quantum jump in the size” of the senator’s crowds — “overnight, they seethed with enthusiasm and multiplied in numbers, as if the sight of him in their homes on the video box, had given him a ‘star quality’ reserved only for television and movie idols.”
Jealous had hoped for a similar springboard. He didn’t come close, which could make the last month of campaign daunting.
He’s now more dependent than ever on outrages from the Trump White House that trigger an unprecedented “blue wave” of voter anger on Election Day.
Valuing Debates
Yet Monday’s single debate in Maryland still matters.
A series of one-on-one dialogues would have been more in the democratic spirit. But Hogan, as is typical of incumbents, wasn’t about to give Jealous gobs of free publicity or risk becoming a visible punching bag for the underdog.
The 100,000-plus viewers who turned their TV sets to the debate still came away winners.
It gave them the chance, in White’s words, to witness “a living portrait of two men under stress” so that voters can “decide, by instinct and emotion, which style and pattern of behavior under stress they preferred in their leader.”
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