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How Did the Candidates Measure Up According to Patti's Tips for the Oct.3rd Presidential Debate?


Below is a re-cap of Patti's tips for President Obama and Governor Romney for the October 3rd Presidential Debate.  How do you think they did?  Which candidate came out ahead during the debate?
According to Patti Wood, Body Language Expert President Obama needs to:

1.     I suggest he come out strong, warm and charismatic before he begins speaking and make a strong positive first statement before he responds to the first questions.

2.     I would coach him and say, “President Obama, smile more as you make strong positive statements. When you speak about how great and hardworking Americans are and what this country is and has become. “

3.       He needs to relax his voice so he can use it to make us feel confident in him.

4.       He had great positive emotional moments and gestures in his DNC speech. He needs to pull some of that emotion and passion into the debates.

5.       He needs to gesture upwards above the waist as he speaks about where we can go to symbolically show he wants and can bring us joy and hope.

6.       He also needs and look up and out to the future.

7.       He has started this new bizarre habit that I call “The Tobacco Chew’ where he seems to cleanse his tongue in his mouth, pursing his lips then pushing his lips outwards and down and out as he says distasteful things  in his DNC.  He did this over 20 times in his DNC speech. He needs to look at that tape and note what motivated him to do that. Stop making statements that call forth that emotion and smile more instead.

8.       He is speaking to everyone so he needs to connect more with the audience, he can’t seem angry with his audience or he’s ashamed of us.

According to Patti Wood, Body Language Expert Governor Mitt Romney needs to:

1.       The single most important piece of advice for Governor Romney is to show genuine warm emotion in his voice and body language.

2.       Governor Romney should move more to illustrate what he is saying so that we feel he is speaking sincerely.

3.       Gesture more over all. He can move and he needs to have more animated and passionate emotional movement, facial and vocal expression.

4.       He needs to be present in the moment and connect more with the audience.

5.       He needs to look out at everyone and then speak using the power of the pause.

6.       Make sure his emotions and his nonverbal messages are in sync.

7.       Be likable – Let his emotions show.

8.     He needs to show nonverbally he is not keeping anything from us.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.