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Today's Debate by the Numbers

by: Neal Fink

Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 21:31:43 PM EDT

(Welcome back, Neal! This is a fun perspective on the debate. - promoted by BranfordBoy)

In his opening remarks, Lieberman "warned" the audience that Lamont would be on the attack. He suggest we keep score and quipped that Lamont would take everyone for pizza and beer if he attacked Lieberman more than five times. So, I decided to keep count on a few stats during the debate. Check out the numbers below.

Neal Fink :: Today's Debate by the Numbers

Stats from Todays Debate
Attacks
Attacks were counted as statements where one candidate directly called out another candidate by name and said something negative about him. For Lamont and Lieberman this was challenging and required some judgment on my part. Schlessinger made it easy by preceding most attacks with the statement "with all due respect..."

Lamont attacks on Lieberman: 7
Lieberman attacks on Lamont: 8
Schlesinger attacks on Lieberman: 12 (this was the real story of the day)
Attacks by Lieberman and Lamont on Schlesinger: Who cares?

Other interesting numbers
Number of times Lieberman criticized the Bush Administration: 4
Number of times Lamont criticized the Bush Administration: Lost count after 20
Number of times Schlesinger criticized the Bush Administration: 3

Number of times Lieberman praised the Bush Administration: 0
Number of times Lamont praised the Bush Administration: 1 (he actually said "I salute the administration" with regard to N. Korea, but then went on to tear them apart.
Number of times Schlessinger praised the Bush Administration: 0

Number of times Lieberman used the terms "bi-partisan" or "working across party lines": Lost count after 18

Number of times Lieberman opened his big mouth after his time had elapsed: 4

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Today's Debate by the Numbers | 7 comments

Good work Neal! (0.00 / 0)

I've missed your insightful commentary. Stick around!

by: ATalbot @ Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 21:09:46 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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There's Attacks and then... (0.00 / 0)

...there's attacks. Your definition -- "Attacks were counted as statements where one candidate directly called out another candidate by name and said something negative about him." -- is a good one for collecting stats, but it's important to distinguish between attacks on the other candidate's character (or that of his campaign) and "attacks" on the other candidate's positions. I'm biased, of course, but it seemed clear to me that more of Joe's "attacks" were of the former sort, while more of Ned's were of the latter type. I leave it as an exercise for the student which type is just nasty and which is what a challenger is actually supposed to do.

by: dauphinb @ Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 21:13:37 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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I was applying a loose interpretation (0.00 / 0)

but certainly agree with daupinb.

It seems that Eric Blankenfaker of the Lieberman blog has his own definition of "negative attack." Either that, or he saw a different debate than the rest of us watched. If you enjoy science fiction, check out "The Nedulator."