Cheney, Lieberman To Debate Tonight

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 5 -- — With the men at the top of the presidential tickets locked in a statistical dead heat, Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat Joseph Lieberman square off tonight in their first and only debate of the 2000 campaign.

Just 48 hours after watching their running mates — George W. Bush and Al Gore, respectively — take stands in the first of three presidential debates, the No. 2 candidates will debate at Centre College in tiny Danville, Ky.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Cheney, a former defense secretary and congressman from Wyoming, said on ABCNEWS’ Nightline Wednesday. “I’m sure Joe is, too … Neither one of us has ever participated in debates at this level before.”

“I don’t know him real well,” Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, said of his opponent. “He’s a good man. I just think he has some bad ideas — he and George [W.] Bush — for our nation’s future. And I think it will be a good, healthy debate.”

Bush will be watching the debate from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Gore will watch from Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Publicly, Bush has offered no advice to his running mate on the debate. Cheney arguably has more debate experience than Bush: he helped Presidents Ford and Reagan prepare for their campaign debates. But ABCNEWS political director Mark Halperin said Cheney’s the one who needs to prove himself.

“On paper, Joe Lieberman has an advantage going into this event. He’s an experienced debater from his years in the Senate up until this day … Dick Cheney, out of public life for a while, never has been in a debate at this level. The trick for him will [be] to show some of his human side,” Halperin said.

Lieberman slept late this morning and Cheney is feeling relaxed today, their wives told Good Morning America. Both are, personally, low-key people. But they’ve spent weeks preparing for the 90-minute debate, getting in a final round of practice Wednesday.