Mary Murphy

Senior lecturer Mary Murphy: Personality counts in a presidential election

FOX's Good Day LA featured journalism professor Mary Murphy on Monday to discuss the presidential candidates and their appearances on talk shows throughout the 2012 campaign (watch the video).

Murphy said that going on talk shows is a crucial part of the campaign today and that it is a way to reach voters who receive information in a different way than those who read newspapers and other news sources.

“The thing is that what all these talk shows are hoping for is that a candidate will somehow be off the cuff. That they’ll say something that makes them human or we’ll find out who they really are,” Murphy said.

In other words, “personality counts."

Murphy noted that President Barack Obama has been on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno five times and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at least twice, while Governor Mitt Romney has yet to do a talk show interview because “he really feels like they wouldn’t be to his advantage.”

Murphy’s advice to Romney is to “go on those shows,” even as the election approaches.

She points out that with everything on the East Coast shut down from Hurricane Sandy, many voters are unable to vote early and Romney still has time to sway a lot of voters.

“It’s the human thing that people want to see,” said Murphy.