GOP Economic Debate

GOP presidential candidates prepare for the party's debate
last night in New Hampshire.

You should have completed the questions about the Primary Elections at this point. Now, we'll prep for, watch, and assess your candidate's effectiveness in last night's Washington Post-Bloomberg debate in New Hampshire.


Remember: You are the campaign managers for your candidate's election committee in Illinois' 7th District. This is a heavily Democratic congressional district, led by the popular Representative Danny K. Davis. You must find a way to convince your district to vote for a Republican -- your Republican!


Last night, the eight leading Grand Old Party (GOP) candidates sat down together to talk about the issues they care most about. You will have the opportunity to look at the debate from three different points of view today:

1. Before: Preparing your candidate for the debate
2. During: Your candidate's responses during the debate
3. After: Assessing your candidate's performance

Complete the following using the same Word document you created last week.


The completed document is worth 50 points.


Part 1: Preview (5 points)
Read this short preview article from the Washington Post. 

• What does the author expect from your candidate? If your candidate is not listed in the article, how can he/she use the information in the article to grab people's attention during the debate?

You can find more information about the debate and what to expect here.


Part 2: Preparation (15 points)
Now that you've got some background information, take a look at Bloomberg's Dozen Questions on the Economy.

• Choose six of the questions. Answer them as completely as you can for your assigned candidate. Paste the link(s) where you found the information after your response.
• Based on your research thus far, make a prediction: What must your candidate focus on during the debate in order to be successful?

Part 3: The Debate (15 points)

Now, finally, you get to see your candidate in action. Hopefully he/she kept all of your preparatory work in mind during the debate!


The full debate is available to watch at the Washington Post website. It is 90 minutes long, however, so it will not be the best use of your time to watch the entire thing today. You can simply skip through the debate. Alternatively, there is a list of links to important segments from the debate on the right hand side of the page. Click on the links to watch the segments relevant to your campaign.


There are two possible assignments you can complete for this section: one for candidates who were invited to the debate, one for those who were not. 


Eight candidates were invited -- that means two of you were left out in the cold. You should be furious.


First, find out if your candidate was invited. Then, complete one of the following options:


Option 1: Invited Candidates: Assess your candidate's performance by answering the following:

1. Count the number of times your candidate talks.
2. Count the questions your candidate volunteers an answer for.
3. Count the number of times your candidate actually answers the question posed by the moderator.
4. Count the number of times your candidate tries to steer the debate toward a topic that benefits him/her. What topics is he/she trying to focus on?
5. Count the number of times your candidate criticizes another candidate. Who is he/she criticizing? What issues are at stake here?
6. Count the number of times your candidate is attacked by another candidate. What weaknesses are the other candidates attempting to exploit?
7. Does your candidate make any mistakes? Explain.
8. Does your candidate seem to be getting his/her fair share of talking time during the debate? Explain.

Option 2: "Outsider" Candidates: In preparation for the debate, review the main issues your candidate cares about. Decide whether or not your candidate was unjustly excluded by answering the following:

1. Why was your candidate excluded from the debate? Is this fair? Explain.
2. Count the number of times your candidate could have spoken. Summarize the issues he/she could have talked about.
3. What could your candidate have attacked another candidate about? Explain.
4. What weaknesses might the other candidates have exploited if your candidate were present at the debate? Explain.
5. Which candidates seem to get the most time to speak during the debate? Why do you think this is the case?
6. What candidate(s) does your candidate match up best against? What could he/she do to be included in the next debate?

Part 4: Evaluation (15 points)

Option 1: Invited Candidates

Complete the following to evaluate your candidate's performance:

1. Check the facts. Did your candidate tell the truth during the debate? What about the other candidates? You can use this assessment from FactCheck.org to help your response.
2. Did your candidate perform well? Describe his/her body language, then explain what this can tell you about them.
3. This one's a long one. Record your mental and emotional responses to the candidate. Your own mental responses can be quite telling. Did the candidate make sense to you?
   
   Now, think about your emotions. What did you feel about your candidate's performance? Think in terms of four emotional categories: glad, sad, mad, afraid.
   
   Note: Keep in mind that your mental and emotional responses reflect your values, your beliefs, your bias, your prejudices. Are you reacting positively or negatively to everything your candidate is saying because he/she is a Republican while you might be a Democrat, because he's black or he's white, male or female?
4. Score your candidate's performance on a scale of 10, with 10 being the highest and 0 being lowest. Explain your score. Note: this score does not necessarily mean the candidate won or lost -- it is simply an indication of his/her performance based on your research/predictions
5. After being his campaign manager in Illinois' 7th District for a couple of weeks now, you're getting to know your candidate pretty well. Do you like him? Would you think about voting for him? Explain why.
6. If given the opportunity to jump ship and work for another campaign, who would you work for? Explain why.
7. Finally, who won the debate? Try to separate your response from the responses of anyone you read online. Explain your response.

Option 2: "Outsider" Candidates

Choose the candidate you liked the best from the debate. Complete the following to evaluate his performance -- hopefully you can use this information to get your candidate invited to the next debate!

1. Check the facts. Did your chosen candidate tell the truth during the debate? What about the other candidates? You can use this assessment from FactCheck.org to help your response.
2. Did your chosen candidate perform well? Describe his/her body language, then explain what this can tell you about him/her.
3. This one's a long one. Record your mental and emotional responses to the candidate. Your own mental responses can be quite telling. Did the candidate make sense to you?
   
   Now, think about your emotions. What did you feel about your candidate's performance? Think in terms of four emotional categories: glad, sad, mad, afraid.
   
   Note: Keep in mind that your mental and emotional responses reflect your values, your beliefs, your bias, your prejudices. Are you reacting positively or negatively to everything your candidate is saying because he/she is a Republican while you might be a Democrat, because he's black or he's white, male or female?
4. Score your chosen candidate's performance on a scale of 10, with 10 being the highest and 0 being lowest. Explain your score. Note: this score does not necessarily mean the candidate won or lost -- it is simply an indication of his/her performance based on your research/predictions
5. Now, go back to your original candidate. After being his campaign manager in Illinois' 7th District for a couple of weeks now, you're getting to know your candidate pretty well. Do you like him? Would you think about voting for him? Explain why.
6. If given the opportunity to jump ship and work for another campaign, who would you work for? Explain why.
7. Finally, who won the debate? Try to separate your response from the responses of anyone you read online. Explain your response.