Rhetoric and persuasion are inseparable from ancient Greek, but the contemporary media communicated by the speakers with the auditorium partly modifies rhetorical and persuasive strategies. In the discourse of political rhetoric, television is a media that is particularly interesting, and television pre-election debate, as a media event of exceptional reach among the television audience, is an important element of the overall pre-election performance of politicians. This paper presents an analysis of the television debate between Zoran Milanović and Andrej Plenković held in 2016, before the parliamentary elections in Croatia. Analysis made by case study methodology aims to explore rhetorical abilities and the effectiveness of speech performances in a persuasive dimension. The analysis showed the same rhetorical skills of both speakers, but the persuasive effect on very firm attitudes was not made. Plenković was effective at the persuasion of the empowerment of the existing attitude and persuasion of the undecided. Overall, more effective was Andrej Plenković, previously unknown to the larger audience.