Coming out of the convention in Tampa, the latest polls don’t show much of a bump for the Republicans, or Gov. Christie. It’s still to be determined if the Democrats will fare any better as President Obama takes the stage tonight in Charlotte to accept his party’s nomination. NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider spoke with Peter Woolley, a former pollster and currently Professor of Comparative Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University about the effect of political conventions on campaigns.
Woolley says he wasn’t surprised by the poll results, saying viewership of political conventions has dwindled over the years to political diehards and partisan voters.
“The fact is the audience is so much narrower and really your aim, I think, is to mobilize people who are already partisan, who are already leaning in your direction.”
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A lot has changed since the days when political conventions were carried by, at the time, the three major television networks. Yet, while audience numbers continue to shrink, the stagecraft of a political convention has grown more impressive. “In some ways, the TV coverage is so much better and longer and more detailed but we’re not watching,” said Woolley.
Many commentators have noted the absence in the current campaign the enthusiasm candidate Barack Obama engendered in 2008. According to Woolley, today’s political climate is vastly different from the one in 2008.
“We’re not in a period where the broader public is repudiating the Bush years. These are the Obama years, so it’s a different ball game. I don’t think we can expect to have the same level of enthusiasm.”
Still, he says Bill Clinton’s performance last night in Charlotte showed how effective a speaker can be when he or she is able to connect with the audience. By all accounts, Clinton’s appearance at the DNC was regarded by political pundits and insiders on both sides of the political spectrum as a success for the Democrats. Gov. Chris Christie’s keynote speech at the Republican National Convention, on the other hand, drew mixed reviews. Expectations were running high for Christie’s keynote address. And that might have been his undoing, says Woolley.
“The expectations were so high that he was going to hit it out of the park. I don’t know that he did that. It’s one thing to read a speech, even read a good speech, it’s another thing to connect with your audience,” said Woolley. “I think you can see last night even if you don’t like Bill Clinton you probably have to concede that that audience and he connected. As I review Chris Christie’s speech, I’m not really sure that it was a connection even though it was a good speech.”