The Presidential Debates of 1908, Research Paper Example

Everyone has heard the old saying that history repeats itself. I have found a National Public Radio website that provides the background for a really good example of what Mark Twain was talking about when he said history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes: a debate between two presidential candidates that took place almost exactly a century ago, in 1908.

The candidates were William Howard Taft and William Jennings Bryan. Taft was a Republican, and Bryan was a Democrat. What makes their contest especially interesting to me is that it was the first one that used recording technology to get messages across to the voters. Probably Mark Twain heard the records too because he followed politics and lived until 1910.

Because you could listen to the issues in the actual voices of candidates, it was the first modern presidential campaign-debate, and maybe even the first modern campaign (although the records were replaced by radio later).  Not only that, the debate centered on two topics that could almost, as the old movie-slogan goes, be torn from today’s headlines: banks and foreign wars.

Today, the foreign war is in Afghanistan. In 1908, the foreign war was in the Philippines. Today, the financial system is still wobbly from the collapse of the stock market in 2008. In 1908, the banks were still wobbly from the Panic of 1907. So 103 years ago Americans were basically talking about the same things people are talking about today: war and money.

But like Twain said, history only rhymes. When you listen to the speeches, you hear things you’d never hear from a candidate today, like Bryan saying we cannot afford to add another race question to the race questions we already have. Then Taft says it is quite unlikely that the Philippine people, because of the dense ignorance of ninety percent . . .

These recordings are very interesting to listen to. The big issues then and today are identical, and hearing them in old-fashioned voices gives a unique look into American history.