{"id":2546,"date":"2008-09-25T13:33:27","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T18:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=2546"},"modified":"2011-05-16T13:40:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T18:40:35","slug":"analyzing-the-presidential-debates-a-non-verbal-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/campaign-08\/analyzing-the-presidential-debates-a-non-verbal-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing the Presidential Debates — A Non-Verbal Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are running on the assumption that despite calls by the McCain campaign to suspend and postpone them, the presidential and vice-presidential debates will continue as scheduled. We offer you this article as a tool to use as you observe the candidates in debate — whenever that will take place. FB<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Friend and Reader:<\/p>\n

MY FRIEND, KAREN BRADLEY, has a job and life I totally envy. She is the head professor of the graduate program in dance at the University of Maryland,\u0412\u00a0and a movement specialist licensed in Laban Movement Analysis<\/a> or LMA.<\/p>\n

Devised by Rudolph Laban<\/a>, LMA\u0412\u00a0 is a system and language for understanding, observing, describing and notating all forms of movement. LMA draws on his theories of effort<\/em> and shape<\/em> to describe, interpret and document human movement.<\/p>\n

Used as a tool by dancers, athletes, physical and occupational therapists, it is one of the most widely used systems of human movement analysis.<\/p>\n

LMA movement analysts map human movement to help people from all stripes to move in healthier and more expressive ways. LMA’s connection to dance is immediate. But its principles of movement analysis are also applied to actors, industrial workers and, yes, politicians.<\/p>\n

Karen is often called upon by the mainstream media to help analyze the body movements of certain leaders while in crucial interviews, speeches or more commonly, during debates.<\/p>\n

Applying the principles of LMA, she observes how candidates change and adapt from one situation to the next from interview, to speeches, to hostile or appreciative crowds. She sees how the candidates tend to operate and where and HOW they adjust as they approach each situational stress, or in some cases, how they\u0412\u00a0don’t adjust.<\/p>\n

What does she mean by adjust? Karen observes the body–how\u0412\u00a0is it\u0412\u00a0holding tension, where does it tend to operate from,\u0412\u00a0how does the person’s attitude change\u0412\u00a0with other people in their space. Do they hold and retain ownership of the space? Do they relinquish space to others? After months of observing the candidates, she has provided some clues as to what we’re looking at when we’re watching them:<\/p>\n

PALIN: Whenever she says “I am ready,” she’s really not answering the question. This means she isn’t adaptable to questions, nor is she listening. She’s all about persistence and no content. She’s really not saying anything, but she does it with great conviction.<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Completely non-adaptable as well. Whatever is going on, he is not going to move. As maverick and leader of the “Straight Talk Express,” his stance didn’t shift or waffle. He owned the space he was in.<\/p>\n

If he changes the message he believes in, he loses his grounding (meaning he verbally spurts, and his body lists like a ship). He wants you to believe he is holding down the fort, but it looks as though he doesn’t believe it himself. No moral center here.<\/p>\n

BIDEN: Very consistent. What McCain should have been. He’s pointed, not broad. He’s got depth. He’s like grandpa: sometimes wise, sometimes goofy, but the goofiness is forgivable because he’s got depth.<\/p>\n

OBAMA: He’s got challenges. Sometimes he wanders around the stage, but that’s when he is listening and thinking\u0412\u00a0about how to respond. You don’t see this trait in any of the other candidates. He’s a\u0412\u00a0very considerate and a good listener. He doesn’t appear to be impulsive. He decides deliberately. He has a center but also has tremendous range. Kids understand: This man is a grown up.<\/p>\n

Karen had another note of interest about the candidates:\u0412\u00a0With all campaigns, Americans get to see and appreciate how they interact with their spouses. However, it seems as though there’s a sharp difference between the McCain and Obama marriages.<\/p>\n

She says, “McCain is never seen with his wife. There’s no sense of partnership there, or a display of a relationship. You don’t see a marriage or a relational interaction\u0412\u00a0there. With the Obamas, there’s an\u0412\u00a0 obvious relationship. The marriage is apparent, with agreements, disagreements and passion.”<\/p>\n

These are good things to know.<\/p>\n

I asked Karen if she was going to watch the debates on Friday and give us some follow up. “Nope,” she said.\u0412\u00a0“I’m going out to meet (family friend)\u0412\u00a0Al Giordano (of The Field<\/a>) at a bar in DC to\u0412\u00a0eat some red meat and throw down some hard liquor.”<\/p>\n

See what I mean about her life?<\/p>\n

Hey Karen, can I join you?\u0412<\/p>\n

Yours and truly,<\/p>\n

Fe Bongolan in San Francisco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are running on the assumption that despite calls by the McCain campaign to suspend and postpone them, the presidential and vice-presidential debates will continue as scheduled. We offer you this article as a tool to use as you observe the candidates in debate — whenever that will take place. FB Dear Friend and Reader: … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[301,111],"tags":[36,297,308,52,129,144,309,117,143],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}