A crowd of about 200 people assembled in Pugh Hall on Friday to hear Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. and Terry McAuliffe, respective former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees, speak.
The discussion gave a behind-the-scenes look at the importance of parties in a candidate-focused campaign from the experiences of the two politicians. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham introduced the lecture's moderator, Michael Putney, a political director at a Miami news station.
The event was the third installment of a four-part presidential lecture series sponsored by UF's Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
Fahrenkopf chaired the RNC from 1982 through 1989 and oversaw the GOP's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, according to a UF news release. McAuliffe chaired the DNC from 2001 to 2005 and was chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President Committee.
Although the politicians took jovial jabs at each other throughout the discussion, McAuliffe and Fahrenkopf agreed on the exceptional nature of the upcoming election.
This is the first time in 56 years an incumbent president or vice president is not running for the White House. Fahrenkopf said this takes away control normally possessed by the party in power.
Talk turned to the candidates who will play a prime role in making November 2008 a historic election, namely Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
Discussion focused on the upcoming presidential debates, and both speakers agreed the spotlight would be on Obama.
"If in those debates Obama shines, this could be 1980 all over again," Fahrenkopf said, recalling the race between Jimmy Carter and suave speaker Ronald Reagan.
He called Obama "one of the most articulate candidates we've had in long time."
However, he criticized Obama's previous performance in debates against former candidate Hillary Clinton and said she usually kept the upper hand.
McAuliffe said the debates provide a platform for Obama to prove himself.
"People like him," McAuliffe said. "They want to see that this man can do the job. If he can, it's going to be big."
The presidential debate format is changing after 20 years, said Fahrenkopf, who is also co-chairman of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
This year candidates will debate for 90 minutes in nine, nine-minute sections. Each will have two minutes to give individual replies, and in the remaining five minutes, candidates will "go at each other," Fahrenkopf said.
"You have no idea what a change this is," he said. "I think the American people have been waiting for that sort of debate for a long time."
Former Sen. Graham said the rapport of both politicians during the discussion, which he likened to "The Colbert Report," is something others should mirror.
"Politics is competitive, but it doesn't have to be carnivorous," he said.
In an interview following the lecture, McAuliffe said that people make politics too personal.
"I'm a good fighter. I was a boxer as a kid," he said. "I like to get out and punch hard, but it's about policy and issues."
Fahrenkopf reflected on the close friendships he has kept with Democrats he has known for decades.
"We can disagree agreeably," he said in an interview. "That's something that's been lost."
