What's behind the debate expectations game?

When was the last time you submitted your resume for a job opening, hoping to get an interview, and downplayed your skills and experience? During presidential election years, the people vying to lead the country have long done it. President Obama, Mitt Romney and their respective running mates are heavily engaged in the game of lowering expectations ahead of debates.

For example, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said in a recent interview that Vice President Joe Biden is "probably going to come at me like a cannonball. More pressure because Mitt Romney put such a great performance that the bar is pretty high. There's also pressure because Joe Biden has been doing this for 40 years."

Ryan's spokesperson Brendan Buck also called Biden "as experienced a debater as anyone in national politics" and noted that "this is Congressman Ryan's first time on this big stage."

Prior to last week's presidential debate, President Obama and his campaign went to great lengths to lower expectations. "Governor Romney - he's a good debater," Mr. Obama told a campaign rally in Las Vegas. "I'm just okay."

The game of lowering expectations dates back decades. It's been going on "as long as I've been involved," said Democratic strategist Tad Devine, who's been involved with presidential politics since 1980.

For instance, during the 1996 election, President Bill Clinton's spokesman Mike McCurry said the president is "feeling a little bit behind and a little bit like he should cram at this point." Clinton's Republican rival Bob Dole publicly downplayed his own skills, telling a campaign rally that Clinton was "so good" that if he simply showed up, he would consider his performance successful.

Related: Full CBS News coverage of the debates

"It's almost embarrassing the way the campaigns praise the other side," Devine, who was also a senior adviser for Al Gore's and John Kerry's presidential runs.

So why do they do it? In short, they think it will make it easier to claim a post-debate win.

"If you can make people think you're not going to perform very well, you can benefit from it," said Jeffrey Staton, associate professor of political science at Emory University.

"It's a common practice because the risk of failing to meet expectations is significant. One way to try and manage that process is to try and get expectations as low as reasonably possible," said Dave Redlawsk, a Rutgers University political science professor who focuses on political psychology.

In 2004, President George W. Bush's strategist Matthew Dowd called his Democratic challenger John Kerry "the best debater since Cicero," one of history's greatest speakers and debaters from the Roman Empire. Kerry did not shy away from his own expectations game, however, reminding voters that President Bush has "won every debate he's ever had."

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[matt6052]

Biden is more presidential than Obama.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

I've seen Biden in senate hearings and I know him to be a sharp no non sense interrogator. So those thinking Joe Biden nothing more than a gaffe prone babbling idiot are going to be shocked. I predict Ryan to be handled like a suspect under klieg lights sweating like the political criminal he is.

[AOCGUY]

Of the two men I would think that Ryan has to be the more nervous of the two. Ryan is a smart guy and no doubt a skilled orator but given the low expectations for Biden and the much higher expectations for Ryan, it is Ryan that needs to hit one out of the park. All Biden has to do is hold his own and he wins because no one expects him to do well.

And despite Biden's tendency for the occasional gaffe (not exactly unusual among politicians) he is in fact a tough debater, it's that conventional wisdom (which is rarely wise) says taht he is not.

[AOCGUY]

And should Biden do well tonight I expect GOP heads to explode. Won't be a big bang considering what appears to be stuffed inside but everyone should hear the pop.

[VERTREP00]

DEBATE: INTELLECT FACTOR
-A key element of liberal strategy is the portrayal of their candidate as a compassionate intellectual. Whereas, the conservative candidate is portrayed as intellectually inferior.
-Romney being intellectually deficient is not working. Wednesday's debate decisively demonstrated an intellectual imbalance to the detriment of liberal strategy.
-The liberal intelligentsia has been deeply wounded and admonished. This may very well undermine core support from within the liberal left and fracture liberal solidarity. This is not to say the attacks on Romney will subside... they will intensify. Liberals are furious and will launch gerrymandered "spears of fear." Conservatives will respond with renewed enthusiasm.
-Intellect: Obama underwhelms voters.

[walkthetalk]

I think Joe Would do well, would do well to stay home.

[walkthetalk]

Joe said that there is "life on Mars", just because he found a cockroach, on candy bar.

[karlejohn]

Tomorrow watch the Ryan....meltdown! Famous words last...."Romney Plan...I can't explain it, it would take to long!"

[LarryMoe2012]

Biden, the buffoon, cannot debate. Biden likes to yell, make ridiculous statements and attack people not based on fact but on fiction. He will fail miserably.

[Marlins11]

So what your calling a great perfomance from Mitt Romney in appling for the highest job in the country is to just show up and lie your *** off and the job is yours. Foolish how anyone could consider the down right disregard of the truth spewing out of Mitt Robme's mouth as qualification of any job. Obama might have been too much of a gentleman giving the Mittster the opportunity to spew lie after lie, but it is irresponsible for a NEWS journalist to present it as a great performance without pointing out that nothing he has to say was even remotely close to truth. What has happened to the investigative reporters who made it their mission to point out the difference between fact and fiction??? Have they all just become parrots on nonsense??? Sad realy