Cameras have become the friend of older candidates

Reading Campbell's analysis of media coverage following the first Kennedy-Nixon debate made me draw some parallels to the 2020 Democratic primary debates and the various candidates campaigns in general. What stood out to me the most was discussion of the candidates age. For instance, Campbell cites a line from an article written by prominent columnist Walter Lippmann following the debate in which Lippmann observed that the cameras "made him [Nixon] look sick... and  older and more worn than he is" (P. 75). Between the ten candidates who have qualified for tomorrow's debate, age has also been a widely discussed topic. The three candidates polling the best (Warren, Sanders, and Biden) are all over the age of seventy, while several of their opponents, most notably Buttigieg, tout their youth as a strong selling feature to voters with talk of generational change and passing the torch. However, today's older candidates, unlike Nixon, have had time to figure out how to use cameras to their advantage when it comes to age: Elizabeth Warren is caught running places so often that it has become a meme and Bernie Sanders often takes time out of his busy campaign schedule to play sports. Age is definitely still an issue in modern campaigns, but today most successful older candidates have mastered using the camera as a tool to show off their health, stamina, and inner youth.