Historical debates

I noticed while watching the presidential and vice presidential debates that the candidates would always steer away from answering the questions, and start talking about someone completely different. Sarah Palin did this the most, during the vice presidential debate and in interviews in general. She would start all of her questions with " I'm just a small town hockey mom" or "Senator McCain and i are both mavericks" This was really frustrating because they would not get to the point, and give a straight answer.
I also noticed a connection between the Obama/McCain debates and the Kennedy/Nixon debates of 1960. The similarity i noticed was the difference in opinions of people who watched the debate or heard it on the radio. People who watched the debate not only heard the presidential candidates opinions, they saw how they were acting when they were giving their responses. Richard Nixon looked awful, and stuttered repeatedly, and Kennedy was calm and collected, and had a good speaking voice So the viewers though that Kennedy had won outright. But the people who listened to the debate on the radio could not see how the candidates were acting though Nixon had won, or that it was a tie. I have noticed that people ( my parents in particular) agree that you cant get as much out of the debates if you just listen to them, because the way the candidate act tells a lot about them.

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