1. framing-science
  2. The Impact of McCain's Split Screen Personality

The Impact of McCain's Split Screen Personality

By nisbetmc on October 16, 2008.

The chatter among pundits and journalists this post-debate morning has focused in part on John McCain's body language and split-screen demeanor. There was a clear aggressiveness and emotion to McCain's performance last night, much of it signaled not just when he was speaking, but also in split-screen reactions to Barack Obama's "eloquence."

Past research on split-screen effects in the 2004 election shows that viewer partisanship is likely to guide reactions to candidate demeanor, with Republicans seeing McCain's behavior as that of a strong leader justly outraged at Obama's attacks and sophistry, and Democrats and Independents likely turned off by the GOP nominee's manner.

Already, as a strategic tool, the Obama campaign has put together a TV ad (above) using McCain's body language and countenance against him, merging his split-screen personality with a narrative once again connecting McCain to the policies of President Bush. And on YouTube, popular music montages have appeared poking fun at McCain's debate reactions (below).

Tags
2008 Election

More like this

Your weekend politics
Note to GOP - ACORN Was Defrauded and You Know It: 1. The GOP during the 70's, 80's and 90's employed a number of methods to register voters to insure the people they were registering were indeed Republican. One method was to go through a neighborhood and register everyone who wasn't registered.…
Your weekend politics
Hmmm, I have not done one of these in a few weeks, so if you depend on me for your political information, check under the fold: The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama: From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in…
I am assuming that everyone reads Glenn Greenwald
But if you don't, here are some snippets from his recent posts: What's missing from the Democratic convention?: The GOP's attacks on Kerry in 2004 were mocking, scornful, derisive, demonizing and deeply personal -- in speech after speech -- and they were also highly effective. They weren't the…
Performance Issues: Science Debate Still a Bad Idea
Bush-Gore Debates 2000: The focus was on performance rather than substance. For those that have seen the Nisbet/Mooney Speaking Science 2.0 talks over the past year, you might have witnessed during the Q&A some disagreement over the merits of actually having the presidential candidates…

Matt
I really enjoy your take on the campaign. It is a refreshing dose of real info. based on data when the media is thriving on creating sensationalism.

By Rodrigo Neely (not verified) on 18 Oct 2008 #permalink