Today's debaters not as fiery as those in the past

DENVER – The goal of most recent political debates has been, in essence, to out sound-bite your opponent.

A key example is the debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Benson in 1988 when Benson said to Quayle: “You are no Jack Kennedy.”

On the same day as the only vice presidential debate this year, 9NEWS wanted to know how much the debates of today have in common with some of the most famous in American history.

Thursday, 9NEWS went to a reenactment of one of the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas which took place 150 years ago.

“It’s often touted as the height of democratic expression and civil exchange,” said Gillian Silverman, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver.

Silverman says the tone of those debates may surprise people who think Lincoln and Douglas were much more civilized.

“Deeply partisan and much more low brow and nasty than anything we have in the political arena today,” she said.

Lincoln and Douglas debated seven times in 1858, giving birth to the modern debate. Historians say it was an environment many would call downright crass today.

“There were dogs barking, there were drunks in the back throwing tomatoes at the stand, everyone was cursing,” said Stephen Hartnett, an associate professor at CU Denver.

"Douglas was famous for bringing a brass canon to the debates which he would set off anytime - his supporters would set off anytime he delivered a good blow to Abraham Lincoln," said Silverman.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates also weren’t for the presidency, just for a senate seat in Illinois. Lincoln lost that race, but his remarks, particularly on slavery, won him enough respect to propel him into the presidency two years later.

While modern debaters may have traded the cannon for the quip, Hartnett and Silverman say they tend to hit some of the same issues.

"Which has more experience? Which has a better hold on the economy? Which man is better able to defend the country from foreign threats?" said Hartnett.