Fox News Debate Failed in Candidate Face Time Matching Poll Standings

Wes Hemings has analyzed "face time" statistics of the debates. He anticipated that their permitted debate participation would reflect polling popularity. What he found was that Rep. Paul came in next to last in speaking time at the debate. He finished just above , a new candidate, Gary Johnson.

Here's the full GOP debate "face time" analysis , which was posed at http://www.dawnoftheweak.com.

http://www.dawnoftheweak.com/2011/09/fox-news-google-debate-9222011.html

by Wes Hemings

Dawn of the Weak.com

Adding a new candidate to the mix, Gary Johnson, did not seem to alleviate the proportional speaking time experienced in past debates. However, the front-runner Rick Perry has come down from his average debate talking time of 14:27 (Perry=13:54 CNN, 14:59 MSNBC) to a still well above average of 11:10 being bested by Mitt Romney with 12:09.

However, it is still very easy to see a lot of the talking opportunities were left primarily to Perry & Romney accounting for 13 and 15 talking turns respectively. It is important to note that there were only 5 follow-up questions asked, 3 of which went to Perry & Romney. There were also 13 responses allowed (a candidate responding directly to another candidate), 9 of which were from Rick Perry & Mitt Romney combined.

If one looks at the polls as an indication as to how much debate allotment should be doled out to whom, then Fox has failed. Perry, Romney, Ron Paul, Bachmann are the order of the candidates in the polls, yet Ron Paul was only above Gary Johnson in his talking opportunities with only 6 total turns talking. Without the 3 blanket questions this left Paul with only 3 questions directed specifically to him, whereas Santorum, Huntsman, Bachmann, Gingrich and Cain were given more opportunities. It should then come as no surprise that Johnson and Paul came in as the longest to wait between turns talking. Johnson waited an average of 14:05, and Paul waited an average of 9:31.

Here are your statistics on the GOP Presidential Debate:

Original Link for Statistics and Analysis:

http://www.dawnoftheweak.com/2011/09/fox-news-google-debate-9222011.html