Q&A with Professor Tom Hollihan

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faced off during the first presidential debate at the University of Denver on Wednesday night.

Communication Professor Tom Hollihan, an expert in political debates, analyzed the candidates’ performances in the domestic policy debate.

Daily Trojan: Did voters learn anything new about the two candidates from the debate?

Tom Hollihan: I think what they saw was two different visions for how to take the country forward -— one vision that is much more focused on using government as a resource to help people and another vision that is much more reliant on free enterprise and individuals and states as opposed to the federal government.

What I don’t think they really learned was precisely what Mr. Romney will do. I think he stylistically did a beautiful job debating and I think he was very articulate at communicating his ideas. He seemed enthusiastic and prepared and ready to be there.

I think the one problem was he was unable to be real concrete and specific in terms of how he would achieve these things. I mean, at one point, he was forced to say my view of government is not that you go in with a proposal but that you listen and negotiate and talk to people and that’s what [he] did in Massachusetts. And I think in the days to come, that’s going to be the focus of a lot of the Democrats’ energy and attack –— to say, “He hasn’t really articulated what he’s going to do. He’s walking away from most of the specific commitments during the course of his campaign so far and he isn’t promising exactly what he’s going to do or how he’s going to do the proposals he wants to get to.”

DT: Do you think the audience picks up on that?

TH: [With] the immediate audience, it’s always a little bit unclear. What we know about debates is that the partisan voters are likely to go in and find enough reasons to support their own candidate’s position to confirm what they already had believed to be true. Undecideds often don’t even watch the debate so they are more influenced by the spin and the press coverage and conversation with their pals following the debate.

DT: Did the debate raise any new issues in the campaign?

TH: No, I don’t think there was much of anything new. It seemed to me that Obama tried to play the debate strategy very conservatively. He did not go on the attack. He really avoided issues like the Bain Capital or the exporting of jobs, he didn’t mention the 47 percent statement. He seemed to play a very conservative strategy. And Romney was much more in control of the emotional dimension of the debate, taking the attack directly to the president, being sharply critical of the president’s positions. I think that was the much more defining characteristic. I don’t think there was much substantively new in this contest.

DT: To what extent do you believe the debate will affect the public?

TH: What typically happens in these debates is that a challenger who can hold his own against an incumbent picks up at least some short-term gain in the polls. Whether or not that gain is maintained in days to come is really hard to determine. I think there is going to be some closing of the polls. I think Mr. Romney is going to see some advantage. But I think it will not be at all clear that he will hang on to that in days to come.

DT: What do you think the two candidates should work on going into the next two debates?

TH: I think they’re going to be trying to get Obama to show a little more energy, to be a little sharper and a little less long-winded. I think they’re going to try to get him to be a little more concrete in going after some specific things or flaws in Romney’s positions. I think [with] Romney, they’re going to try to say, “You gave as well as you got in this debate, but you didn’t make the final say. And you have to be more prepared about how to be concrete.”

The foreign policy debate, I think, will be an advantage to Obama. This debate was somewhat of an advantage for the challenger because Obama’s most difficult set of facts is the nature of the economy right now. But he’s been so effective with the foreign policy debate that I’d look for that to be an advantage for the president.

DT: Who do you think ultimately won the debate?

TH: I don’t ever answer that question in terms quite that stark.  … It’s a matter of which candidate better achieved the objective they have to achieve. And I would give the advantage to Romney on that. I think the fact is the Republicans will be enthusiastic about how well he performed in this debate, whereas Democrats will be more likely disappointed that the president didn’t deliver a knock-out blow.

DT: Were the candidates’ performances in line with expectations for tonight?

I think Romney outperformed what a lot of people expected. I think Obama was a little bit flat and underperformed. But I think his supporters may have been more optimistic because he is such an eloquent stump speaker. That doesn’t necessarily translate to great debating skills. Those are different kinds of speaking styles. But nonetheless I think people thought that would play into his debate performance.