The first 1976 U.S. presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and Governor Jimmy Carter in Philadelphia was a landmark encounter. As moderator Edwin Newman of NBC News stated in his introduction, it was “the first between presidential candidates in 16 years and the first ever in which an incumbent president [had] participated.” But it was also remarkable for the technical glitch that stopped the debate in its tracks before closing remarks were made. Over an hour into the debate, the audio feed for the estimated 70 million television viewers — or 54 percent of households — cut out.18 And it stayed out for 27 long minutes. For a few moments, there was silence as technicians tried to fix the problem, and then reporters began interviewing representatives of the two campaigns at a different location to fill the time. All the while, though, the candidates stood awkwardly on the stage, waiting quietly behind their respective podiums. They did not talk to one another, and did not sit down for fear of possibly appearing weak to prospective voters, Ford explained to veteran debate moderator Jim Lehrer. “I watched that tape afterward,” Carter recalled, “and it was embarrassing to me that both President Ford and I stood there almost like robots. We didn’t move around, we didn’t walk over and shake hands with each other. We just stood there.”1
- 1. (Lehrer, Jim. Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates. New York: Random House, 2012. 13-14.)