General Discussion

The first one was the Nixon vs. Kennedy debate. People who watched it on TV thought Kennedy won because Nixon looked sweaty and nervous, but those who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon won. It's all about the optics, the performance and the spectacle. Now that we've got big screen HDTVs and instant Internet and a history of 60+ years of glammed-up TV spectacles that's all we want and all we expect. I wonder what the collective verdict on the debate would have been if it had only been on the radio? Would people still have focused on Biden's vocal hesitations or would they have listened to his actual words?