There They Go Again
October 10, 2008 at 10:43 am
Fun tidbit in today’s Wall Street Journal:
In that 1984 debate, when Mr. Reagan was asked whether his advanced age ever made him doubt his abilities, he responded, “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience” to thunderous applause. Even his opponent, Walter Mondale, smiled. Mr. Mondale later said that’s when he knew he had lost the election.
In another experiment, Dr. Fein showed a 40-minute excerpt of that debate to 53 college students, some seeing it with the audience’s reaction and others without. Mr. Reagan won by a 4-to-1 margin with the cheers; without the audience reaction, victory was heavily Mr. Mondale’s.
Judge for yourself …
richard said,
October 10, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
That’s the theory behind the tv laugh track, no?