The pretence is to be dark-skinned tailored and witty

& ,}

TEN American presidential elections have featured televised debates in in in between the candidates. This week Britain will have the initial as Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg block up prior to the cameras. What lessons can be gleaned from opposite the Atlantic?

Look the piece The iconic head-to-heads in in in between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960 were the initial in US history. Ted Sorensen, JFKs speechwriter and comparison adviser, who is right away 81, explains how they rebuilt for the discuss in Chicago. We got up early in the sunrise after a good nights nap and sat on the roof tiles of his road house in the object for Kennedy to get a healthy suntan, that is a lot improved seeking than make-up, he said. And we went by record cards of all the questions, often difficult ones, that we could think competence arise.

Nixon was not in good figure on the day of the debate. He had outlayed majority of the previous month in sanatorium pang from a putrid or toxic infection.

The discuss writer Don Hewitt said: Kennedy arrived seeking handsome, dark-skinned and well-tailored similar to the cover of a little movie star magazine. Nixon looked green and sallow. Both men declined make-up, though JFK had an help hide out to buy him a little Max Factor.

Focus: Election 2010 Brightons so far left, the roughly HastingsMeet the kingmakers the Motorway MenIs the climb in NI unequivocally a taxation on jobs?Brown: "Just see at my achievementsElection 2010: Be tanned, tailored and witty Election specialMarginal"s electorate wish details, not slogansThe outcome on Labour from the streetTory women MPs spoiling for a fightGove vows to get each kid readingCameron faces rare pitch odds

Famously, TV viewers saw Kennedy as the discuss winner, whilst those who usually heard it on air wave lucky Nixon.

Dont flint your rebuilt lines Bizarrely, in 1976, President Gerald Ford practised for his debates opposite Jimmy Carter by opposed a television on that his advisers played clips of the Georgia governor.

In the genuine debate, Ford misremembered what he had been coached to say: that America would never accept Soviet mastery of eastern Europe. Instead it came out as: There is no Soviet mastery of eastern Europe and there never will be underneath a Ford administration.

Pat Buchanan, an confidant to unbroken Republican presidents, said: Fords gaffe was steady on radio each singular day and I think it could have cost him the presidency.

Acknowledge your weaknesses with humour Ronald Reagan was 73 when he stood for re-election in 1984. He was up opposite Walter Mondale, who was seventeen years his junior. In the initial discuss Reagan put in such a stumbling performance that majority people thought it was time for the old actress to leave the presidential stage.

In the last debate, when the mania cause came up, a passionless Reagan responded with a line he wrote himself:

I will not have age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to feat for political purposes my opponents girl and inexperience.

The assembly laughed, as did Reagans opponent. But, as Mondale right away ruefully admits: I knew hed gotten me there. I walked off the theatre that night almost sure my discuss was over and it was.

Body denunciation is consequential The 1992 discuss in in in between President George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton was the initial to underline the assembly without delay questioning the candidates. While Clinton played the assembly similar to an emoting televangelist, the camera held Bush seeking at his watch.

The media finished a outrageous thing of that, Bush recalls. You see at your watch and they say, He shouldnt be using for president: hes wearied and hes out of it and we need change.

Was I blissful when the darned thing was over? Yeah, and may be thats because I was looking at my watch usually 10 some-more mins of this crap. Maybe if Id have said that afterwards Id have finished better.

But be clever how you make use of it In 2000 it was Bushs son, Dubya, up against Vice-President Al Gore in a discuss noted by Gores martial physique language.

While Bush was speaking, Gore got up from his chair and walked menacingly towards him. Jim Lehrer, the authority of the debate, said: I thought Gore was going to conflict Bush. And so I wondered what I should do: mount up and pull them apart?

When Bush saw his competition coming, he offering Gore a faraway curtsy of recognition.

As I stop it, Bush said.

I gave him a kind of peculiar expression. The alternative choice was to go for the outrageous chest bump, that would may be have motionless the discuss and he was bigger than I am.

Gore has regularly declined to insist himself.

Winning is all After 10 debates, a recognizable settlement has emerged. In roughly all cases the man in all deliberate to have won the debates goes on to win the presidency. Incumbency is no good advantage: of six incumbents who have debated, just half have won. In majority cases the younger, less experienced claimant has won the debates with the good exception of Reagan.

Michael Cockerells documentary How to Win the TV Debate is on BBC2 at 7pm tomorrow