Fox News Google Debate 9/22/2011 Statistics on Talking Time

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Adding a new candidate to the mix, Gary Johnson, did not seem to alleviate the disproportional 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:

	Total Talking Time
Romney	12:09
Perry	11:10
Huntsman	07:41
Santorum	07:06
Cain	06:23
Bachmann	06:13
Gingrich	05:44
Ron Paul	04:33
Johnson Total	04:10 1:05:09

*Note: This is uninterrupted talking time, except for audience cheer/applause in the middle of a response as this goes against their official response time. Does not include moderators' time for questions/interactions.

	% of Total Talk Time
Romney	18.65%
Perry	17.14%
Huntsman	11.79%
Santorum	10.90%
Cain	9.80%
Bachmann	9.54%
Gingrich	8.80%
Ron Paul	6.98%
Johnson	6.40%

	Turns Talking
Romney	15
Perry	13
Santorum	9
Huntsman	9
Bachmann	8
Gingrich	7
Cain	7
Ron Paul	6
Johnson	5
Total	79

	Questions	Responses	Follow-ups
Perry	8	4	1
Romney	8	5	2
Bachmann	7	1	0
Gingrich	7	0	0
Cain	7	0	0
Santorum	7	1	1
Ron Paul	6	0	0
Huntsman	6	2	1
Johnson	5	0	0
Total	61	13	5

	Avg Time between Talks
Johnson	14:05
Ron Paul	09:31
Cain	08:16
Gingrich	07:56
Huntsman	07:11
Bachmann	07:10
Santorum	06:43
Romney	04:46
Perry	04:37

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CNN Teaparty Debate 9/12/2011 Statistics

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Once again it was the Rick Perry & Mitt Romney show. Hogging up nearly 14 minutes and nearly 11 minutes respectively, the nearest talking time was Congresswoman Michele Bachmann with 8:35. Largely due to so many attacks on him, CNN gave no shortage of time to Rick Perry for response, and in many cases CNN actually initiated the back 'n forth. The case will probably be made that this was for the sake of continuing story-lines currently in the news cycle, but it is quite odd that in continuing news cycles that when the Federal Reserve is brought up for discussion that Santorum, Cain, Bachmann, Perry and Romney were all questioned, leaving out the one person in politics who is actually responsible for bringing the Federal Reserve out of the closet of secrecy: Ron Paul.

Oddly, the feedback loop continues since the talk time was given to the perceived frontrunners which will likely result in showing their highlights and discussing how they dominated the debate while everyone else was strangely absent. Perhaps it is time for a more forum-oriented national discussion, maybe half in actual forum with extended time-allotments and the other half in direct debates. I, for one, would love an entire debate where the candidates moderate. Can't be worse than this.

Here are the statistics:
Talking Time (mm:ss):

Perry	13:54
Romney	10:56
Ron Paul	07:34
Bachmann	08:35
Newt	07:32
Cain	05:42
Santorum	07:06
Huntsman	07:50
Total	1:09:09

*Note: This is uninterrupted talking time, except for audience cheer/applause in the middle of a response as this goes against their official response time. Does not include moderators' time for questions/interactions.

% of Total Talking Time:

Perry	20.10%
Romney	15.81%
Ron Paul	10.94%
Bachmann	12.41%
Newt	10.89%
Cain	8.24%
Santorum	10.27%
Huntsman	11.33%

# Turns Talking:

Perry	18
Romney	10
Ron Paul	7
Bachmann	8
Newt	5
Cain	6
Santorum	7
Huntsman	7

*Note: Does not include introductory & closing statement as these were all-included. Only responses longer than 10+ seconds.

Avg Time Between Turns:

Perry	02:37
Romney	04:40
Ron Paul	07:19
Bachmann	06:29
Newt	09:44
Cain	08:45
Santorum	06:30
Huntsman	07:19

As for platform time, Cain was robbed with only speaking 5 minutes and 42 seconds; Newt didn't get to address too many topics. Speaking of which...

Topics / Discussion Time:

Opening Comments	02:15
Social Security	10:21
Budget / Debt	05:23
Economy	12:53
Federal Reserve	04:27
Taxes	04:11
Executive Orders	05:23
Healthcare / Insurance	06:57
Immigration	08:22
Energy Independence	00:52
Defense Spending	02:39
Foreign Policy	03:46
Personal Question	01:40

The economy and Social Security dominating the discussion. Overall, covering a gamut of topics.

There you have it, statistically.

MSNBC/Politico 9-7-2011 Debate: Statistics on Talking Time & The Perry Romney Show

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To the casual viewer, it's clear that this debate revolved around Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. Perhaps a little understandable that the media and masses are eager to hear from the new kid on the block, Rick Perry, but the penalty of waiting so long to jump in the race is, in fact, the loss of your time to promote your platform. While understandable, it's an error to allot any extra time to the "new kid" or to polled front-runners.

Why? Obviously, the point of a debate is to allow discussion of each candidate's views in order to help them change their campaign in the polls. The very move of giving extra time to current front-runners only reenforces the front-runners' lead and perception of importance. It's a feedback loop. If there is one time that even coverage should not only be allowed, but expected, it's in a debate. If you don't want to hear from certain candidates then why are they there? It can be no surprise that the most memorable performance will go to one of the candidates given the most talking time. To hear a candidate say that Bachmann underperformed is absurd, it's hard to perform without adequate time. I'm no fan of Bachmann, to say it politely, but I am a fan of equality.

Here are the statistics:
Total Time Spent Talking (minutes):

Perry	14:59
Mitt	11:57
Paul	09:19
Bachmann	09:05
Newt	06:53
Herman	05:41
Santorum	06:11
Huntsman	08:52

Number of "Talking Blocks" (not the number of questions, but the number of times allocated to one person at a time. Ex: Perry answers question, is asked a followup and they move to Cain. This is 1 block of talking time for Perry.):

Perry	15
Mitt	11
Paul	7
Bachmann	8
Newt	6
Herman	6
Santorum	5
Huntsman	7

Average Time Between Questions/Talking Blocks (minutes, rounded to nearest 2nd decimal):

Perry	3.98
Mitt	5.23
Paul	9.09
Bachmann	7.15
Newt	10.14
Herman	11.01
Santorum	11.18
Huntsman	7.77

Percentage of Talking Time Allotted:

Perry	20.54%
Mitt	16.38%
Paul	12.77%
Bachmann	12.45%
Newt	9.44%
Herman	7.79%
Santorum	8.48%
Huntsman	12.15%

73 Minutes Total Talking Time

Other interesting factoids: Ron Paul was the last talker before every break, including the last speaker at the debate's end. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney were the first speakers at the beginning or return from each break, including the lead-off to the debate (it was Perry/Romney/Perry).

By all accounts, there weren't really big losers, just two big winners: Perry and Romney. Though the case can be made that Santorum and Herman Cain both were rather silent, taking up only 11 or 12 minutes combined. In each stat it's easy to see that it never took long to get back around to Perry or Romney. The real mystery is how Huntsman, though statistically without a heartbeat in the polls, managed to get as much action as Paul and Bachmann.

Just seems rather arbitrary by the forum.

Note: None of the talking time contains any of the moderators' talking/questioning. The stats reflect only the time actually spent talking by candidates.