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The Presidential debates can be an extremely powerful tool which enable the candidates to show their personality, oratory skills and get their message clear on a number of key issues. The interested audience is huge and their value is very large, but can they actually be effective enough to affect the outcome? I think not.

I firmly believe that a sophisticated, modern electorate is much more knowledgeable and refined for that to be the case and I have a keen sense of "quality will win" running through my veins.

To allow the debates themselves to affect enough people to actually decide the outcome means that the electorate and system are far too shallow to bear the responsibility, and that we are looking at the shorter term, aesthetically pleasing elements rather than voting based on policies or beliefs. I have more faith in the modern electorate than that.

I believe that fundamental opinions on political parties, policies and individuals are solidified well before the razzamatazz and circus of the debates. The debates, therefore, re-inforce these beliefs and make them clear. Sure, use the debates to re-affirm that you have made the right choice, but don't depend on them to be the key factor is balancing your views.

I also believe that a sophisticated electorate will vote on policy rather than personality, certainly in terms of the majority of voters, and therefore the entertainment of the debates will only affect enough people to provide the minority of voters.

However, there is a real danger that our modern obsession with "celebrity" will give the debates more gravitas. Many people will look at personality and image, and will form their opinions based on style, lifestyle, looks and image. Of course, these traits have always been important in any election, after all it can be seen as not much more than a popularity contest, but we should not allow the majority to be swayed this late in the day by that entertainment factor.

We all want a strong personality at the helm, and definitely want someone who we feel will stand up for our interests, but this will not be shown by good oratory skills or an enigmatic personality, but more by the substance of what they say and the conviction with which it will be followed.

The debates should merely act as a clarification of beliefs held and of policies to be adopted. Views on various subjects should be merely re-inforced by what the candidates have to say, but they should not be allowed to affect enough people so that they actually affect the final outcome of the poll.

I am relying on the US electorate to be more concerned and sophisticated than that.

Learn more about this author, Stephen Bate.
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