The U.S. presidential debates are coming back to a TV-screen near you, and guess what? American voters don’t want to hear about little hands or about Trump’s hair again…
Instead, according to a recent study, they want to see GOP nominee Donald Trump and democratic rival Hillary Clinton debate about two key issues: terrorism and the economy.
“Given the chance to decide how much time is spent on each issue, voters would allocate more time to discussions of the candidates’ plans on keeping the U.S. safe from terrorism and on economic growth and much less time to discussion of abortion policy,” noted Pew Research Center, releasing the results Monday of a survey done in June.
Pew asked 3,767 registered voters to imagine they were moderating the 100-minute national debate between the two candidates and asked them to allocate time across 10 issues: keeping the U.S. safe from terrorism, economic growth, the nation’s budget deficit, health care policy, foreign policy and dealing with other countries, immigration, gun policy, global climate change, supreme court nominations, and abortion policy.
“On average, voters allocated 15 of a total 100 minutes to hearing the candidates’ plans for keeping the U.S. safe from terrorism. Just over half of voters (53%) earmarked more than 10 minutes to this topic, while only 18% gave it less than 10 minutes (29% gave it exactly 10 minutes),” Pew wrote.
“Both Trump and Clinton on supporters want to hear more debate terrorism compared with other topics, but Trump supporters allocate even more time than Clinton supporters (17 minutes vs. 13 minutes). Four-in-ten of Trump’s backers (40%) would devote at least 20 minutes of the debate to the topic while 17% of Clinton supporters would allocate 20 minutes or more.”
When it came to the economy, there are modest differences between Trump and Clinton supporters in time devoted to the topic.
“Voters also say they would allocate somewhat more time on average to the candidates’ plans on economic growth (12 minutes), the nation’s budget deficit (11 minutes), health care policy (11 minutes), and foreign policy and dealing with other countries (11 minutes),” Pew said, adding that Trump supporters generally set aside more minute for economic growth and the deficit.
Meanwhile, Clinton supporters set aside, “two more minutes than Trump supporters for health care (12 minutes vs. 10 minutes).”
Gun control, Climate Change and Abortion?
The pattern shifted when it came to gun policy, with Clinton backers allocating more time (11 minutes) on the issue than Trump supporters (8 minutes).
“Overall, voters give less debate time for climate change (7 minutes), Supreme Court nominations (7 minutes) and abortion policy (5 minutes),” Pew said.
Pew found that both Trump and Clinton supporters give less time than average to Superme court nominations and to abortion, but saw a wider gap when it came to climate change.
“Clinton supporters would give it 10 minutes of the debate time, while Trump backers would give it just four minutes, including 44% who would give it zero minutes in the discussion (by comparison, only 13% of Clinton voters give it zero minutes).”
Let the games begin…
Cover image: Irishcentral.com
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