On November 9, 1993, Vice-President Al Gore debated Ross Perot on the subject of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. That Gore triumphed in the debate and succeeded thereby in winning pivotal votes in Congress for NAFTA has been widely acknowledged by the news media. The argument of this essay is that the debaters' character displays, presented in a context that made them exceptionally salient, were sufficient to prompt a reasonable message recipient to judge not just the debate but the policy proposal being debated.
On November 9, 1993, Vice-President Al Gore debated Ross Perot on the subject of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. That Gore triumphed in the debate and succeeded thereby in winning pivotal votes in Congress for NAFTA has been widely acknowledged by the news media. The argument of this essay is that the debaters' character displays, presented in a context that made them exceptionally salient, were sufficient to prompt a reasonable message recipient to judge not just the debate but the policy proposal being debated.