A season of TV stumping
Candidates book face-time on talk shows
By Thom Patterson
CNN
 |  Sen. John Edwards gets a laugh Thursday with Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. |
|
 VIDEO |
 CNN's Bill Schneider on Bush's debate-eve strategy.
 CNN's Dan Lothian on the Democrats' follow-up to the VP debate.
 CNN's Suzanne Malveaux on Bush in the battlegrounds.
|
|
(CNN) -- Letterman, Leno , "The View, " Regis and Kelly, Dr. Phil, Oprah -- it seems that the 2004 campaign trail leads to television talk shows as much as it does to hotly contested states.
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was making the rounds Thursday, appearing on "Live with Regis and Kelly" and on ABC's "The View."
But do candidates favor shows because of their hosts? (Special Report: America Votes 2004)
Conservative Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly welcomed President Bush to his show for an interview that spanned three consecutive nights last month while Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry took the stage with a more free-wheeling Leno last year.
Kerry rode on stage on a Harley- Davidson motorbike while wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket.
"I'm sure that the candidates have preferences," said William Benoit, presidential campaign expert at the University of Missouri's school of communication.
Back in ABC's Manhattan studios, "View" host Barbara Walters had a warning for Edwards.
"You think you had a hard time with Dick Cheney, wait until you meet 'The View!'" said Walters, just two days after the candidate's debate with the vice president.
The senator talked about family oriented issues, such as the campaign's plans to provide health care to more Americans but he -- and Elizabeth Edwards -- also got personal, telling stories about their children and -- particularly -- their first date.
"At the end of the night instead of doing all the fast things that fellows did then, he gave me a kiss on the forehead, " Elizabeth Edwards said.
Earlier on "Live," John Edwards appeared alone and discussed junk food with Kelly Ripa. Eventually, Ripa's co-host Regis Philbin yelled, "Let's talk about issues!"
Edwards responded, "We have a plan to clean up this mess we're in, in Iraq," which drew applause from the program's New York audience.
Such campaign tactics are a reflection of the modern media environment. Unlike the 1970s, hundreds of television channels are available today, splitting the electorate's attention like never before, said Robert Thompson of Syracuse University.
"Now, I think candidates realize that they've got to collect these constituencies, these audiences, like you would assemble a patch-work quilt," Thompson said.
"You've got to make the whistlestop to these various places to slowly build up a coalition of audiences so that you know that you can find a lot of women voters at 'Oprah;' you know if you want those got-to-have-but --hard-to-get, young males, you can find them on 'The Daily Show' and ['The Late Show' with David] Letterman and ['Late Night' with Conan [O'Brien] and those places."
Benoit said it's a political media strategy that may date back as early as 1960, when Democratic presidential candidate John Kennedy appeared on NBC's "The Jack Paar Show." "When candidates go to a television talk show, the audience is there to see the hosts or the other guests -- or maybe to see them -- and they get sort of a captive audience," Benoit said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger turned a lot of heads -- and did much to kick-start his successful campaign for governor of California -- when he announced his candidacy last year on "The Tonight Show." Jay Leno's audience is full of people who might not otherwise care much about political happenings -- giving the action movie star quite a public relations coup.
The night Schwarzenegger won election, Leno was on stage with him during the campaign's victory celebration.
The concept of presidential politics on talks shows took a giant leap in 1992, when Democratic candidate Bill Clinton appeared on Arsenio Hall's show playing a saxophone. And it's not just the candidate who can benefit from the talk show circuit. Hall's producers saw the benefits of Clinton's appearance when ratings spiked that night to 5.4 million viewers.
"Clinton playing the sax -- that's the gold standard," said Thompson. "Number one -- because very few candidates had made such appearances before and -- number two -- because he did it on Arsenio Hall, which was kind of a cool, late night thing at the time. But most importantly, he played the sax. That would even be unusual today."
