First Debate Crucial for Gore and Bush
— -- The stakes are high as Al Gore and George W. Bush steel themselves for the first presidential debate.
ABCNEWS.comOct. 3— With the first presidential
debate only hours away, Al Gore and George W. Bush are in Boston, making their final preparations for what each candidate knows could be a crucial showdown.
The stakes for the two candidates could not be higher, with the race for the White House locked in a dead heat and Election Day five weeks off.
The latest ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll shows Gore leading Bush 48 percent to 46 percent — a virtual tie given the survey’s three-point error margin.
“It’s a close election so every big event like this … can have a pretty healthy impact,” Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political strategist, said this morning on CBS’ Early Show. “People will see how both these men handle themselves under pressure.”
“This is a big night in the campaign, no matter how you look at it,” agreed Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman. “This is a close election.”
Candidates Face Different Challenges
The vice president and the Texas governor will each face particular challenges during the 90-minute forum at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Gore, who has a reputation as an effective and aggressive debater, hopes to show his mastery of the issues without appearing too hostile toward his opponent.
“I’m not sure there will be attacks,” Gore told ABCNEWS’ Terry Moran on Monday. “There won’t be any from me. If there are from him, I’ll deal with that at the time.”
The vice president described the debate as being “kind of like a job interview” in which the American people represent “the ones that are doing the hiring.”
But the Bush camp says the Texas governor is preparing to face an opponent in full attack-mode.
“It’s clear they’re going to be on the attack,” Rove said today on ABCNEWS’ Good Morning America. “I suspect we’ll have a lot of mischaracterizations by Vice President Gore — that’s much his tactic.”
Lieberman said the vice president would not shy way from engaging Bush on specifics.
“He’ll try to get George Bush [to be] a little bit more factual and explicit about some of his proposals,” Lieberman said. “This will be a good lively exchange … a healthy and direct exchange of ideas.”
Bush’s advisers say their candidate is fully prepared to debate Gore on the issues. “The primary thing is to share his values and views, his agenda for America’s future,” said Rove. “What he would do to reform education, Social Security, cut taxes, rebuild America’s military. That’s what’s important for him to do tonight.”
For his part, Bush said he was “Ready to go.”
With far less experience in government and in debates, the Republican candidate will strive to show his comfort with a range of policy matters, while avoiding any gaffes of the sort that have at times plagued him on the campaign trail.
“Tonight’s not the night for gimmicks,” Bush told reporters in Boston this afternoon. “Tonight’s the night to talk about heart, compassion and vision. I look forward to it.”
As for whether or not Bush expected the vice president to go on the attack, Rove quipped, “We don’t know whether to expect the hostile Al Gore or the sensitive Al Gore.”
The Expectations Game
Given the Republican nominee’s comparative lack of debating experience, Bush’s advisers have been downplaying expectations for his performance, casting Gore as the clear favorite as a means of taking pressure off Bush.
Bush communications director Karen Hughes called Gore “the best debater in modern American politics.”
“We’re in a little bit of a disadvantage because Al Gore clearly is an accomplished debater,” Rove added this morning. “Prior to this year, [Governor Bush] had done very few debates.”
The Gore campaign has been touting Bush’s record in debates, pointing out that the GOP nominee performed well when in those “very few debates” — against then-Texas Gov. Ann Richards in the 1994 gubernatorial debates and against Arizona Sen. John McCain during this election’s Republican primaries.
“I don’t expect any knockout,” said Lieberman. “Governor Bush is a good debater. He’s been in the ring with a couple of real pros.”
Countdown to the Showdown
As Bush and Gore steel for their first showdown, the two candidates have prepared for the much-anticipated meeting in different ways.
Bush has been conducting formal preparations for this debate since May, including participating in mock-debate sessions with New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg.
Having finished those preparations this weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, the Republican candidate campaigned Monday in West Virginia, a traditionally Democratic-leaning state where he has been making headway.
“You wait ’till tomorrow night,” Bush told an enthusiastic audience at a rally in Huntington, as he outlined his plan to privatize a portion of Social Security. “In the debates you will hear him say, ‘We can’t do that,’ You know why? Because he trusts government, and I trust people.”
In the final hours before the debate, Bush will exercise and take a nap, according to Hughes. She said Bush would also meet with his advisers, but will avoid any last-minute “cramming.”
“We are not in a contest of scripted lines,” she said. “When people see him unfiltered, they see him as a thoughtful man of substance.”
Gore spent a long weekend preparing in Florida, where Bush’s brother Jeb is governor. With the two candidates running neck and neck in recent state polls, the vice president believes he can take the Sunshine State in November.
The vice president’s aides said the candidate was keenly focused on the task at hand Monday evening as he held his final mock-debate with former Clinton aide Paul Begala, the Gore campaign’s stand-in for Bush, in Sarasota, where he prepared for the 1996 vice-presidential debates. The aides said they were surprised at how serious the session was in contrast to previous rehearsals where the mood was much more light-hearted.
“The heart of Gore’s preparation has consisted of closed-door sessions with his advisers, but in an effort to gauge whether his message is making a connection with the public, Gore also brought along a group of about a dozen citizens he has met during the course of his campaign.
“We’ve been talking about what people look for and listen for when watching the debates,” Gore said.
After watching a mock-debate session Sunday, Susan Fadley, a schoolteacher, told Gore, “I just think you need to show your sincerity and your genuineness, your passion.”
Under tonight’s debate format, both candidates will be standing behind podiums and fielding questions from moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.
Both candidates had walk-throughs of the debate site this afternoon, to familiarize themselves with the logistics for the event.
“I’m kind of a long-winded guy — what happens if I keep going?’ Bush asked, after being shown the flashing light that will indicate when a candidate has used up all of his time for a response.
“That’s up to Jim,” he was told.
‘Debategate’ Distraction?
Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer said Sunday the FBI’s investigation into how a package of Bush’s debate materials ended up in the Gore camp has not distracted Bush or forced him to alter his preparations. There has been speculation the materials, which Gore advisers immediately turned over to the FBI, were sent by someone affiliated with the Bush campaign.
“His approach is the same it always has been,” Fleischer told reporters.
Besides his wife Laura, Bush will have an extended family presence in the debate hall. His brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, will be there, as will his sister Doro and his cousin Craig Stapleton.
The next two debates, also moderated by Lehrer, will have a more “free-flowing” style that Bush lobbied for. One will feature the candidates chatting with Lehrer at a table, and another will be a town hall-style meeting with questions from the audience.
The remaining two presidential debates will take place Oct. 11 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Oct. 17 in St. Louis.
ABCNEWS’ Dean Reynolds, John Berman and Dana Hill contributed to this report.