What Obama and McCain need to do in debates

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain will have very different strategies when they meet in three debates. Both will do their best to avoid gaffes, of course, but each candidate will be trying to convey very different messages to the millions of American voters who tune in.

OBAMA

Obama has two major objectives: He must present himself as trustworthy and moderate in his politics, but he also needs to convey that he is engaged and personally connected to them, their fears and their problems.

He failed to do so during the Democratic presidential primaries and ended up losing some very important states with large blue-collar populations, most notably Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"He should tell his story, and the stories of real people to relate to and create identification with potential voters," said David Steinberg, the director of debates at the University of Miami whose teams have won numerous awards, including the 1996 national championship. "He will be helped by some expression of emotion, especially anger ... (because) too often he is perceived as professorial and detached."

McCAIN

McCain, on the other hand, has to reduce voters' concerns about his age — he is 72.

"Ronald Reagan used personality and humor ... (and) McCain would be well advised to do the same," Steinberg said. "His key is to be likable and to work to evoke his vision for the future while reminding the public of his heroic past and history fighting within his party."

He said that "two sorts of gaffes could hurt McCain: the misstatement or forgotten information indicative of age, or a show of his infamous temper."

When it comes to debates, both Obama and McCain can learn from Reagan, said John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California.

A strong debate performance in 1980 against incumbent Jimmy Carter propelled Reagan to a landslide, and "if Obama excels, then the same thing could happen to him," Pitney said.

Four years later, however, Reagan "stumbled and fumbled" against Walter Mondale in their first debate but ultimately recovered - and stopped a slide in the polls - in the second debate with his famous quip about not making Mondale's "youth and inexperience" an issue in the campaign. That could be McCain's recovery model if he stumbles, Pitney said.

But "that was before YouTube," he added. "Today, any mistake will keep reverberating in cyberspace."