Abstract

Building on past content analyses of presidential debates to determine how format affects the levels of clash and candidates' strategies, this study answers three questions about the 2000 presidential debates: (a) Do candidates differ in their use of clash and nonclash argument strategies? (b) Does format affect candidates' strategic choices? and (c) Does the structure of questions explain strategic choices? Results of the content analysis suggest that format and question content affect candidates' strategic choices; however, other factors including the larger campaign strategy, polling data, and performance in previous debates also influence strategies.

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