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Abstract
An academically neglected aspect of presidential debates seems fundamental to public judgments about candidates: their silences or absences regarding debates. This essay argues that the meanings of such performance fragments are negotiated in a complex of power relations, expectations for a president, and political factors. It examines four cases in which competing rhetorical framings of candidates' debate absences or silences were significant. It analyzes the broad range of ways in which rhetorical resources and choices combine to characterize candidate judgments as political gaffes or leadership displays that, either way, reflect on relative assessments of contenders' potential for successful democratic leadership and the health of the democratic system.