Admiral James Stockdale Interview | Debating Our Destiny | Sept. 4, 1999 | PBS
JIM LEHRER: Do you feel that these debates should focus less on issues and more on these character kinds of things?
ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE: Yes. I think character is permanent, and issues are transient. Half the issues they - are so polished they’re talking about - are dead by the time they get into the office, and into the midst of their tour where they’re really productive. So this is just a rhetoric exercise generally. This idea, as you know, that I have firm convictions that the idea of issues being a big deal where our mutual friend went back and he felt so strongly that the determining factor in electoral success should be a proven character. And you’ve got to design these so that everybody can somehow portray his character.
JIM LEHRER: How would you do that, Admiral?
ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE: Well, ask them. What was the most risky, physical provocation you made? I mean, did you - did you strike the commissar, did you - were you willing to go in the ropes? I mean, I really think that I would expect somebody that’s leading the country to have some kind of - some kind of courage physically, personally.
JIM LEHRER: In other words, you would ask questions like have you ever been afraid, Senator? Have you -
ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE: …If I were up there today, if I could have taken this book and read a few passages from it to the audience, they would have said oh, I get it. He’s a novice, but he’s had these - he’s experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started - he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam. I see. He’s a little bit different, but let’s get them all together, and that’s -
JIM LEHRER: And those things, you think, are relevant to being president or vice president of the United States.
ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE: I do.
JIM LEHRER: Why?
ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE: Because people are - people are, I think, interested in the quality of the man’s experience, and what he’s prepared to do. The guy that just arranges things so that the stock market holds up is nobody in my - in my estimation.
