Suchergebnisse

This study analyzes viewer assessments of Sara Palin's vice presidential debate performance. Specifically, a national sample of debate viewers evaluated Palin and her vice presidential opponent Joe Biden on both image and issue measures before and after viewing their debate performance. We argue that the attendant media attention surrounding Palin before her debate performance—mostly negative in tone—framed Palin as unfit for office and created expectations that she would fail in her debate with Joe Biden. On several measures, however, Palin's debate performance actually exceeded the low-bar of expectations that had been set, thus benefiting her in terms of viewers' assessments of her debate performance.