Best Arguer Generally Wins Debate

Go on the attack. Make your opponent angry. Use your authority, not your reason. And if all else fails, claim victory in the teeth of defeat.

It's tried and true advice for U.S. presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry, as they belly up to the cameras at University of Miami tonight for the first of three debates that may decide the fate of the country, and much of the world, for the next four years after the Nov. 2 election.

The strategist behind the advice, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, died 144 years ago, making it too late to recruit him for the campaign finale. But his words, experts say, are just as telling today as they were in the 19th century.

In spite of the crucial foreign and domestic policy issues at stake, they point out, the most important factor is the image, not the intellect, the candidates project. As Schopenhauer put it, in his essay"The Art of Controversy," the"will to power" is more important than the facts on the ground.

"Specific issues matter less than image, especially who projects the quality of leadership and ability to protect the country," says Carrol Doherty, editor of the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press."The world changed after 9/11. Toughness and resoluteness are the things people want to see now."

Kerry enters the debate as the underdog, polls indicate. The points won by his exceptional Vietnam War record were wiped out by a"flip-flop" image and failure to stand up to hard-hitting attacks mounted by Bush's campaign team, accused by opponents of dirty tricks.

But, pollsters say, Kerry is also in a bind if he tries to launch a counter-attack: Democratic hopeful Howard Dean, who let rip with public anger, lost the bid to run for his party when he was caricatured as an unelectable"loose cannon."

For both presidential candidates, getting the image right for the debate is the most vital decision they will make in their political lives. And it requires skill and coaching that have little to do with the job itself. The candidates must capture and transmit the image expressing the prevailing emotions of their day with near-perfect accuracy.

The theatrical nature of the debates, says Canadian political analyst John von Heyking of the University of Lethbridge stems from cynicism and the effects of liberal democracy.

"The idea of working for the common good isn't something that exists now," he says."Instead people talk about the public interest, in individualistic liberal terms. If there isn't a sense of common good, there isn't much to argue over. It's charisma over rationality. Whoever argues the best, wins."