This paper analyzes the discursive strategies employed by Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin during the first presidential election TV debate in Brazilian history between a president in office (Lula) and an opposition candidate (Alckmin) in 2006. Special attention is paid to those discursive strategies which were used by the candidates in their attempts to create a positive image of themselves (i.e., the discursive ethos). The paper shows that the social divisions in Brazilian society, which are rooted in the colonial period, are extremely relevant for the construction of the discursive ethos despite nearly two hundred years of Brazilian independence.