MEDIA

Will the U.S. election end with a tie?

This 2012 U.S. election will end with a tie.  No, not a tie in the popular vote on November 6 nor a tie in the Electoral College. What will decide who in the next president of the United States will be the ties the two men wore in their final debate.  Do you prefer Obama’s solid blue tie with tiny squares or Romney’s bright red and with broad stripes that looked purplish on my monitor?

While this may sound ludicrous, so too have been the post-debate ‘popularity polls’ and American reaction.  Issues are of little import in the world of TV broadcasting. ‘Looks’, not words are key as McLuhan long ago recognized.  Style, not substance, rules in this visual medium as Neil Postman lamented in Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Put simply, on TV, whoever ‘looks’ more dynamic and assertive – in dress and body language - wins the audience over at the emotional/subconscious level.

Winners are the male lions and male peacocks who expand their manes or feathers to look more powerful and impressive. Losers are sloths and worms – slow moving or simply yucky.

What Americans should be paying attention to is their different world views on the role of government: minimalist vs. active on the economy, social change and foreign policy.  Those are the three real issues of this election.

 

But these get lost in combative exchanges filled with – at best -- half-truths from both sides. In such a confusing environment, and given TVs visual bias, ‘looking good’ is the deciding factor. 

 

After watching segments of the first debate I knew within minutes Obama was in trouble.  His cropped haircut with visibly grey curls sprouting everywhere was no match  for Romney’s distinguished grey sideburns and jet black mane of hair.  Obama rarely moved his arms and looked wooden, tired and ill while Romney used every chance to stand broad shouldered, with a glowing smile, leaning forward aggressively.  In brief, Romney looked the star quarterback and Obama the 90 lb weakling who couldn’t ever make the team.   

These visuals revived Romney’s presidential numbers among viewers polled the next day and has since given his campaign huge momentum.

 

Question:  How did those listening on RADIO react?  Did Obama do so poorly when only his voice and tone were available for judgement – alongside his positions on the issues?   No one seems to have bothered polling such people or even asking the question.

 

In 1960, the first televised presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, radio listeners gave Nixon a 60% to 40%

victory, but the larger TV audience reversed the ratings.

On TV, Nixon, recently hospitalized, showing             5 o’clock shadow and sweating under the studio lights was no match visually for the tanned, non-sweating and constantly smiling Kennedy.

And the rest is history.

 

So, why are the two fabric ties worn in the last debate so important?  Because by now most pundits and the public believe the two men are each at 47% of the popular vote.  The earlier debates have ‘balanced out’ as one win for each – based on demeanor and flash.  Obama, the reigning champion, rose from the ring floor and did well in debate # 2 -- like a Rocky.

 

In the final debate, forced to sit at a round table inches apart, physical dynamism was minimized. Both men sat and spoke with little body language or energy.  Poor lighting and camera choices did not help either, as Obama’s dark skin looked two dimensional on my screen and Romney’s often wrinkled forehead and pale face were not inspiring.

Both men wore what seemed to be identical black suits – same colour and cut -- and only their ties were distinctively different. 

As they constantly threw conflicting information and numbers at each other, their ties, for once,  galvanized my attention and probably that of most viewers.

My wife did not see the debates but when I asked her which tie she would prefer – as described above – she chose the blue one. 

So, based on this scientific poll of one, and a female perspective at that, Obama will win.