Presidential debates: Lula and Alckmin’s strategies on TV Bandeirantes

Abstract

Presidential debates are extremely important and enjoy high visibility within electoral campaigns. Nonetheless, they have not stirred up particular interest on the part of researchers in Brazil. This article analyzes a televised presidential debate between candidates Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin during the the 2006 dispute. Through content analysis, we seek to respond to the following questions: 1) Did the two candidates have different strategies? 2) Which types of strategies were employed by the incumbent candidate Lula and by his adversary? 3) How were candidates’ speeches structured? Furthermore, this essay should be seen as a methodological effort, meant to introduce this issue onto the Communication and Politics research agenda in Brazil today. Our results reveal that the most-utilized strategy on the part of both candidates consisted in attacking one’s adversary. The incumbent candidate Lula tended to direct his attacks on the political group to which Alckmin belonged; Alckmin in turn centered his attacks on the Lula administration. In his defense, Lula focused on his accomplishments in the social and economic arenas and directed attacks on former president Fernando Enrique Cardoso’s administration. Geraldo Alckmin formulated his argument by focusing exclusively on his term in São Paulo government and did not take on the defense of his political group Keywords: presidential debate; content analysis; 2006 elections.