Getting real

An interesting take on the VP debate by a couple of academics.

"Biden vs. Palin - Movement Analysis Defines Who Won the Debate"

By:Karen Kohn Bradley
Associate Professor
Certified Movement Analyst
University of Maryland

and

Karen Studd
Associate Professor
Certified Movement Analyst
George Mason University


Sarah Palin lost the room immediately after Joe Biden got real.

Until that moment, the debate had been a farrago of swirling facts, shuffling notes, and competing spins, with the occasional Palin wink and smile at the people in TV land. On a movement level, both the Vice-Presidential candidates showed a sense of urgency, and the increasing speed of their deliveries overcame whatever meaning the sound bites had. About halfway through, all of us, Gwen Ifill included, were headed into a trance, as if we were watching a merry-go-round spin faster and faster, punctuated only by those strange smiles.

What about those smiles? Not exactly heartfelt or even remotely resembling pleasure, the candidates took turns smiling during the other’s answers. Each time, it appeared that a choice had been made: to smile rather than “go negative”.

Palin was narrow in posture and gesture and directed herself to the camera, reaching forward, advancing and committing to a course of action. Biden was a little more open, gathering information and presenting a broader range of options. Both were very good at letting people see these stylistic differences, making the choice much clearer.

But then, Palin made the wrong choice. Once again she spewed her talking points, completely failing to notice that Biden had just produced an extraordinary answer — an answer not about policy, but about himself. Biden made a direct and powerful connection with the American people, the very "Joe Six Pac—soccer mom" voters Palin had been rhetorically and repetitively attempting to own. Palin was incapable of responding to this authentic moment, which was rich with nonverbal information about Joe Biden as a father, a parent, and a public servant. Instead Palin just stood there, looking straight at the camera, with not a moment of concern or compassion in response to what Biden had revealed.

Why this moment was the critical moment: movement reveals a great deal about how people make decisions, how they tackle problems, and how they relate to others. Too many "body language" experts focus on a particular gesture or body part. In our movement analysis, we look at the movement "event" as a part of the individual's style. The movement event we saw Thursday night was authentic honest emotion. Joe Biden choked up. And then he pressed on.

No pitches for sympathy, no lingering in that emotion. He felt it, squelched it, and took it to a universal level, relating his own terrible experience to that of many Americans. At that moment, millions of viewers understood the role of a leader: to take one's own struggles and challenges and to relate wisdom gained to the situations at hand.

A stunning moment indeed and Sarah Palin missed it.

Karen Kohn Bradley and Karen Studd are Laban Certified Movement Analysts, who study the nonverbal and movement behaviors of political leaders.