“I've got some points I'd like to make here”: The achievement of social face through turn management during the 1992 vice presidential debate

Politicians are increasingly participating in interactions, readily available to their constituents on the mass media, that entail managing potentially confrontational conversations with others. In fact, the 1992 vice presidential debate featured a format that forced the candidates to confront each other directly during open discussion periods. This article explores how the candidates resolved the rhetorical and interactional problem inherent to the format—gaining the floor as well as presenting their desired social face. This discourse analysis of the candidates’ interactions during the debate reveals that metacommunication and repetition enabled the candidates to obtain and maintain turns at talk during the free‐flowing discussion period. The pursuit of answers to direct questions and the shifting of discussion direction permitted the candidates to control the nature of the discussion. Further, their ability or inability to employ effective interactional resources to manage the debate contributed to their respective self‐presentations.