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Did Sarah, John, Barack and Joe show debating stress?

By: Dr Jeff Bailey. Eighty million people have been reported as watching the vice presidential and presidential debates and I wondered what the stress was on the four candidates. Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden must feel increasing stress at this stage of their campaigns. The televised debates must have caused additional stress and strain.
At stake in the debates is the possibility that they might win or lose voter's support. For anyone who has debated, the constant strain is saying something ridiculous. The two elements for debating are content and presentation and one must be expert in both areas.
The styles of the four contenders, John, Barack, Sarah and Joe are all different. The strain of having to change one's style to meet the expectations of the public speaking tutors must be intense. Campaign stress is sufficient tension without having to develop a credible debating style. How does one respond to these changes?
Barack Obama has to portray an image of being closely connected with the people. He cannot be seen to be remote and theoretical as they want someone who is warm and understands them. To deal with this tension he promotes a new vision for America revolving around the concept of change.
John McCain has had a long term as a prisoner of war but this is not sufficient for many people. In fact, the danger is that they might see him as a war hawk when in fact he wants to be seen as a committed patriot. His age and medical condition are two factors which cause his team some anxiety as they try to downplay these potential limitations.
Joe Biden has the constant tension of having a huge amount of experience and has the pressure of trying to present this accurately and in a digestible way. Some pundits suggest that Joe is too arrogant. Voters like to think that their politicians are like themselves and this is Joe's pressure.
Sarah Palin has to choose between being folksy and from a small community and being credible on the national and international scene. What makes her appealing is her cute mannerisms, her winking, her 'doggones' and 'aints' but these are also limitations. Her additional stress was to appear informed after some of her disastrous earlier interviews.
The stress during the debates for all four was to present an appealing personality and to limit their presumed weaknesses. To be successful, each of the nominees had to overcome any personality or information deficiencies. The question of whether they attracted the popular vote would depend on viewers' perceptions of how well they handled both content and presentation.

Article Source: http://www.lifeweightloss.com

Dr Jeff, a psychologist, writes about stress. The televised debates of Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barak Obama and Joe Biden gave a chance to consider how much stress each nominee experienced. Did they handle stress well? Get Dr Jeff's free stress book. Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

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