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Third Debate: Memos from Duval
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1554444
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Third Debate: Memos from Duval
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White House Special Files Unit Files
Ford - Carter Debates Files
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1976
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The original documents are located in Box 3, folder "Third Debate: Memos from Duval" of
the White House Special Files Unit Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald Ford donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
THE PRESIDENT
LAST DEBATE MEMORANDUMS
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 18, 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR:
THE PRESIDENT
FORD LIBRARY
FROM:
MIKE DUVAL
Who
SUBJECT:
Last Debate
There is one suggestion which keeps coming up, primarily
from people in Southern California. It is that you
respond to a Carter "non-answer" to a question with the
following statement:
"Mr. Carter has once again refused to
answer the question. The question was
.
I yield the remaining time I have for
this rebuttal to Mr. Carter if he will
answer directly the question asked of
him."
This isn't a bad idea, but obviously would only work if
Carter did not expect it. The fact is that so many people
have made this suggestion, I am certain Carter has been fore-
warned.
Accordingly, I recommend that you do not use this ploy.
Instead, we will provide you with a recommended response to
Carter's refusal to answer the question.
SECOND DEBATE
PRO CARTER
PRO FORD
"
moterator
30
09
Anti-HAK and Nixon
D
Carter's would let
=
i
Communists in Italian Govt.
5
Fireside Chat
I'l
21
Negotiated with Soviets from strength
EASTERN
European
25
Remarks
5
UE
Weapons to
of
Iran
135
35
Won't sell China arms
OH
41
"[]
45
"
3
09
anti-Ford
nuclear policy
comments re SAI
55
5
we are weak
5
60
65
Korea
HAK criticism
Panama Canal
70
TL
Delay in releasing Mayagues details
"
75
Mayaguez
1L
14
Arab Boycott
08
Mia's
of
19 Arab Boycott
80
85
&
End Carter
Closing remarks
78
End President's
Closing Remarks
06
moderator
FIRST DEBATE
PRO CARTER
PRO FORD
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
Moders oders for
50
3
n
Tax Cuts
UII,
UI
5
is :
12
r
Federal Government is a mess
I
21
Sign Tax Bill
v
&
125
30
Bureaucratic Mess
of
2
4
Carter's Record as Governor
35
we
35
25
LE
Anti-Crime
of
oll
BE
Tax Cut
Energy Crises
13
gt
IN
CTI
5
÷
47
50
es
15
5
34 Carter Spendi
99
57
Tax Reform
is
09
65
Democrats wrote
tax laws
70
morality
spending
Congress
75
it
(Audio Interruption)
08
Closing remarks
6
Tl.
85
98
Closing Remarks
06
moterator
95
TAB A
FIRST DEBATE
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
PRO CARTER
PRO FORD
3
oders tor
OE
60
6
01
4
51
UII
Tax Cuts
6
Ey is È
12
y
Federal Government is a mess
2
20
Sign Tax Bill
is
&
25
e
BE
Bureaucratic Mess
15
35
2
$
Carter's Record as Governor
£
35
36
37
Anti-Crime
01
V
0/1
8F
Tax Cut
Energy Crises
St
" 43 ÷
471
50
es
15
55
Carter Spendi
99
57
Tax Reform
bs
09
6/
is
65
Democrats wrote
tax laws
70
morality
spending
Congress
75
08
(Audio Interruption)
Closing remarks
8
18
The
85
98
Closing Remarks
06
moderator
99
SECOND DEBATE
FORD & LIBRARY
PRO CARTER
PRO FORD
1
moverator
30
60
Anti-HAK and Nixon
Carter's would let
)
=
Communists in Italian Govt.
Fireside Chat
1.1
Negotiated with Soviets from strength
uc
EASTERN EUROPEAN REMARKS
25
Weapons to
or
UL
Iran
34
35
35
Won't sell China arms
4
on
45
09
anti-Ford
nuclear policy
comments re SALI
55
we are weak-
09
65
Korea
HAK criticism
Panama Canal
70
A
TL
"
Delay in releasing Mayagues details
Mayaguez
75
HL
Arab Boycott
08
Mia's
Arab Boycott
02
85
End Carter
End President's
Closing remarks
Closing Remarks
06
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 18, 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR:
THE PRESIDENT
FROM:
MIKE DUVAL
Mike
SUBJECT:
Last Debate
BACKGROUND
Based on our polling data, you clearly won the first debate and
probably won, or at least did as well as Carter in the second
debate. The panels polled by Teeter following the second debate
showed you with an 11 point lead before the press reaction to your
Eastern European remark began to play. By the time the press had
blasted at you for 24 hours you were down 45 points. The lesson
to be learned from this is that your debating style for the first
two debates has not been a problem. Although we will suggest
some minor refinements further on in this memo, it is clear that
your Eastern European remark (while it did not particularly impact
the viewing public at the time of the debate), became the focus
of press criticism and it was the criticism that had the impact
on the voting public. In addition, Carter succeeded -- to some
extent - - in putting you on the defensive at the beginning of
the second debate. He will probably try this again next time.
Your advisers believe you should go into the last debate with the
objective of a clear victory over Carter. This will be the largest
audience you will have between now and the election. You should
use it to make a positive and forceful appeal for their votes.
OBJECTIVES FOR LAST DEBATE
Bob Teeter advises that you should attempt to reach the following
audiences during your last debate:
1. Rural, moderately conservative, traditionally
GOP voters;
2. Traditionally Democratic-leaning, blue collar
voters in the big suberbs; and
3. Upper middle class ticket splitters who also
live in the suberbs of the big cities.
GEEALS FORD LIBRARY
Page 2
There are two major themes that appeal to all three groups:
FORD
Maintaining the peace, and
LIBRARY
Lower taxes.
You should take every opportunity during the debate to make
these two points forcefully and with as many varied examples
and anecdotes as possible.
You must emphasize the importance of this election by pointing
out the major differences between you and Mr. Carter, not the
minor ones. You should emphasize the fact that he is
inexperienced and unknown. Compare this with your record for the
past two years and your vision of the next four. You should
close with a direct appeal for voter support on November 2.
SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING STYLE
One consensus that has emerged as your advisers (such as
Bill Carruthers) reviewed the second debate tape is that you
appear to have been overly concerned with the television cameras.
In the first debate you were more natural and appeared at ease
while talking primarily to the panelist that asked the question.
In the second debate you seemed more concerned with the cameras
and thus appeared to lose some concentration on the substance of
your answer.
This undoubtedly was a result of the many criticisms expressed
to you after the first debate to the effect that you should look
at the camera more often.
An example of how much more effective you are when talking
to your questioner can be found in your excellent performance
at last week's press conference. By relating directly to the
questioner, your answers tend to be short, responsive and human.
This may be because of the feedback you get from the questioner
by way of nods or "signals" which give you a cue when you have
fully answered the question. In any event, by concentrating on
the panel in the next debate you should come off as more relaxed
and candid.
Therefore, we continue to recommend that you essentially address
your answer to the questioner, looking only at the camera when
you want to make a point directly to the viewing public. This
transition should be natural and keyed to the substance of what
you are saying.
Page 3
Also, you may wish to keep in mind if you do talk directly
to the camera you really are not perceived (by the viewer)
as talking to 80-100 million people. You are perceived as
talking to just those people in the room watching the
television set, which, on the average is likely to be a single
couple or a family. Thus, you should keep in mind that you
are talking to people in the intimacy of their living room and
your tone should be more conversational than that of a stump
speech.
Another point on which there is substantial agreement concerns
the loudness of your voice when responding. Many viewers
perceive you to be shouting and this is in marked contrast to
Carter's responses which tend to vary in pitch and be much more
modulated and 1ow-keyed. Given the technical control the pool
producer has over audio level, you can speak much more softly
without any fear of not being heard or understood.
A third point which many have made concerns the appearance you
give of being overly stern. Although this is helpful at times to
indicate strength and dominance over Carter, the fact is, it
has not varied in the two debates and you now come across to
some as angry and strident.
To summarize, your advisers (principally Carruthers, Gergen,
Teeter, Baily and Deardourff), have two general recommendations
concerning style:
1. Be more natural, at ease. Approach the debate
as you did the press conference where you directly
respond to the questioner, looking at the camera
where it is natural to do so, but keeping a personal
relationship between your questioner and yourself.
2. Vary the pace of the debate. Alternate - - as it
becomes natural to do so, based on the questions
and the statements by Carter -- between:
serious, stern;
hitting Carter directly and hard three or
four times (not often and not in a knit-
picking manner); ;
FORD
show some humor, a smile and even (if
appropriate) a laugh; and
LIBRARY
show compassion with a soft voice and
perhaps obvious emotion while relating a
personal experience.
Page 4
YOUR ANSWERS/RESPONSES
The following are some general recommendations concerning the
content of your answers/responses during the third debate:
1. Keep them Short. Your answers and responses in the
second debate were generally longer than during the
first encounter. Your shorter responses tend to be
better organized and more forcefully stated.
Bob Hartmann makes the additional point that it would
be very useful if you can answer just one question
with a simple yes or no. Teeter agrees with this
but feels a brief sentence or two in explanation
might be appropriate. It is obvious from reviewing
the first two tapes that there is no need to use all
your time and indeed you score your best points with
short, crisp, sentences that make a point with one or
two facts to support your argument.
2. Be Responsive and Positive. It appeared to us in
reviewing the second debate that you often did not
focus on the question or on Carter's response. It
may be useful this time to jot down the question
directed to Carter so you can refer to it specifically
in your rebuttal. It may also be useful for you to
very briefly repeat the essence of the question asked
of you so that you can demonstrate your willingness to
deal forthrightly and directly with the question. If
you concentrate on the specific question asked and on
the specific statements being made by Carter, you are
more likely to come across in a natural, relaxed and
responsive manner, much like your performance in last
week's press conference. After giving a short, but
direct response to the question you can go on and
make the key points (themes) which are covered in the
next section.
We recommend that you set a positive, up-lifting tone
in the last debate. Demonstrate by how you deal with
the questions and Carter's attacks that you are the
President and the other guy is an over-ambitious, light-
weight challenger. Always take the high ground and leave
the cheap shots to Carter. Although we are not certain,
the public may well believe that the campaign has sunk
to a very low level of petty charges and counter-charges.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Page 5
The press certainly has this view. Your post
debate reviews will benefit considerably if you
are perceived to have taken the high road.
By being positive and referring to the future
you will not be on the defensive a crucial
point in terms of "winning" the debate.
3. Give simple answers that communicate thoughts,
not statistics. Many of us felt that your answers
in the first two debates (particularly the second),
while technically accurate and powerful, nevertheless
contained so many statistics and complexities that the
point you were trying to make was lost on the average
viewer. Our review of the analysis developed by Bob
Teeter (see Tab A) shows that you scored most heavily
in the first debate with your statements concerning
tax cuts. The only thing that approached this
positive response in the second debate was your
comments concerning the Mayaguez which came across
as emotional, personal and in relatively simple,
easily understandable terms.
4. Draw conclusions. We recommend that you end each
answer/response with a conclusion which puts into
perspective the subject matter just discussed and the
differences between you and Carter. The people expect
you, as President, to demonstrate your leadership by
stating simply what these complex issues mean. You
should give them the "bottom line". This is also an
excellent opportunity to put Carter on the defensive
as he attempts to respond to your answers. By
representing his position in your conclusion, you
tend to preempt his response by stating in advance
the points he is about to make and why they are wrong
or misleading. (We will provide some specific
examples.)
KEY POINTS (THEMES)
As indicated above, after responding succinctly to the question,
you should make the appropriate key points in order to "score"
with the targeted audience.
We have indicated that the two most important points (or themes)
to make are that (1) you are for lower taxes for everyone and
(2) under your leadership we will maintain peace.
FORD LIBRARY
Page 6
(In addition to these two points, we are developing some
suggested responses to key issues.)
Nevertheless, it is not the substance of your answers and
rebuttals that is going to "win or lose" the debate. What
counts is the message you communicate concerning your own
character, ability, and vision vis-a-vis Carter. Accordingly,
I recommend that you spend as much time as possible over the
next two days going over your answers with two or three of your
advisers in a Q and A format.
SUMMARY
For the above reasons we believe you can decisively win the
last debate if you:
Emphasize the major themes of peace and tax
cuts and mention other key "themes" we will
present to you.
Appear relaxed and natural thereby conveying
to the viewing public your personal qualities
of strength, self-confidence, ability to deal
with people directly and forthrightly, and
compassion and understanding for peoples' problems.
Deal with Mr. Carter by appearing clearly as the
President, on the high road, who is not distracted
by the challenger. You should occasionally, and
sharply, put him in his place with a forceful
(but not strident) rebuke at the appropriate time
involving an issue of importance.
Do not become defensive. Stress your record of
achievement and talk about the future.
FORD LIBRARY