Time & Perspective Quote by Peter Jennings

Debates are sold as civic rituals, but Jennings pulls the curtain back: they are television, and television runs on moments. The verb "own" is the tell. It recasts democratic argument as property acquisition, a marketplace where a crisp line or a raised eyebrow can be banked like equity. Jennings, a broadcast journalist who lived through the era when debates became prime-time events and "the clip" started to outrank the full exchange, is naming the medium's incentive structure with clinical understatement.

The intent is less cynical than surgical. He is explaining how candidates approach the format: not as a seminar where the best reasoning accumulates, but as a high-stakes audition where one memorable beat can define the entire performance. The subtext is that voters rarely experience a debate as a complete text. Most people encounter it filtered through highlights, headlines, late-night jokes, and the next morning's "who won" chatter. A candidate who lands a single clean blow can dominate the narrative even if their overall case is thin.

Jennings' phrasing also indicts the pundit ecosystem that helped build this logic. "Own a moment" presumes a camera ready to canonize it, moderators whose questions create a lane for it, and a media machine eager to replay it until it calcifies into conventional wisdom. In that sense, he's not just describing candidates; he's describing a culture that confuses political persuasion with shareable content, rewarding those who can manufacture a GIF over those who can govern.