The so-so presidential debate

It's likely that many of Minnesota's 1,000-plus high-school debaters will be tuning into the presidential and vice presidential debates, the first of which will be held Friday between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

It's even more likely that they'll hardly recognize what they're watching.

"Our presidential debates are media events that are forums at best, with the candidates primarily seeking a sound bite that will play out on the news the next few days," said Chris McDonald, whose Eagan High debate program is a perennial state-tournament powerhouse. "They've become very contrived. ... I don't even know why we bother."

Wayzata High coach Gail Sarff agreed: "They're more like question-and-answer sessions than real debates. We have more confronting, which leads to more clarity on what their positions are. I think it's good for younger debaters, ninth-graders, to watch. By the time they are seniors, they actually see that it's shallow."

High-school debates are markedly different, to be sure. In the most prevalent format, policy debates, only one topic is covered each school year. This year, it's alternative energy. "I'm sure our kids know more about alternative or renewable energy than any of the candidates," Sarff said. Within each round, there are cross-examinations, rebuttals and closing arguments.

Except for a town-hall format in the second presidential debate, the national clashes will feature eight 10-minute segments, each covering a different topic. That means, Sarff said, that the politicians "don't have to extend their analysis or face real cross-examination. Because of the rebuttals in our debates, there's a lot more chance for a speaker to say, 'This is our position and this is their position.'"

Meanwhile, tone and body language matter less in high school, the coaches say. Still, debaters have to play to their audience (i.e., the judges), Sarff acknowledged, and it's never a good idea to sigh while your opponent is talking, a la Al Gore in 2000.

But overall, content trumps style at the high school level, Sarff said. "It's almost exclusively about the information and the logical use of that evidence. Very little, if any, is about your presentation from a delivery standpoint."

Gender enters the equation

And although next Thursday's matchup between vice presidential nominees Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden is a rarity on the national front, high school students see the gender issue as a nonissue. McDonald, whose 74-member debate team is about 80 percent female, noted that "in the last decade, we've really moved beyond the days when girls were being accused of being overly aggressive when they were only doing things a guy would do."

But he said neither Biden nor Palin should be too aggressive. The two coaches' advice differed slightly on that front, with McDonald advocating that the candidates "above all have to be themselves" and Sarff counseling them "to be kind of androgynous."

McDonald's captain, Namita Desai, said that Palin should augment her "confident speaking style with deep analysis of pressing issues in order to assert that she is not just a small-town politician from Alaska." Her advice for Biden was to "continue to emphasize his experience in politics and world affairs."

Desai praised Obama's "easy, conversational speaking style" in previous debates," but said he "will need to portray himself as moderate and reasonable, while insisting that his perspective is more cohesive than the 'mavericks.'"

One thing we won't see in the upcoming debates is bipartisanship -- or, rather, cross-partisanship. In high school debates, each team must argue one side of the issue in the first round, then the other side in Round 2.

"The overarching ideal," said McDonald, "is that it forces you to advocate both ways on an issue to better understand the issue, to really stand in the shoes of the other side so that you develop a more holistic viewpoint of the issues. Not everything is fed to you, and you get an understanding of the other side. It helps high school students gain a stronger understanding of the issues and makes for more informed voters."

Or, as Sarff puts it, "By the end of the season, they have really earned a right to have an opinion, because they really have looked at it from every angle."