Bush, Gore gear up for their debates

Every Monday until Election Day, The Daily Pennsylvanian will examine one of the issues affecting the race for the presidency. This week: the debates. There will be no punches -- no black eyes, no bloody noses -- and there will be no announcer shouting, "Let's get ready to rumble!" But both sides will come out fighting when presidential nominees Al Gore and George W. Bush square off next month in three televised primetime appearances, established by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Both campaigns agreed on Thursday that the schedule set by the CPD will be followed. The debates, to be held on October 3, October 11 and October 17, will be covered by the major television networks. Jim Lehrer of PBS will moderate. Just a week ago, however, there were questions both inside and outside of Washington as to whether these official debates would happen. The Bush campaign was wavering over the "debate on debates," making the Texas governor appear afraid to confront Gore in the traditional format that has guided presidential debates since 1960. For two weeks, Bush had been requesting one traditional match-up and two non-traditional confrontations on CNN's Larry King Live and NBC's Meet the Press. But Bush caved on the battle, putting the disagreement over the scheduling of the debates behind him. "I can't wait," Bush said on Thursday during a campaign stop in San Diego. Major newspapers across the country had been critical of the Bush campaign's stance on the debate issue. "Bush should abandon his gamesmanship and get on with the debates," the Los Angeles Times said in a recent editorial. "A fair campaign demands it." Voters, too, had been hoping that the campaigns would decide quickly on a debate schedule. In a New York Times/CBS News poll released September 13, 86 percent of respondents felt that the CPD should hold the debates. Now that the debates are scheduled, the public and the pundits are calculating their expectations for the outcome. In past elections, debates have left an indelible mark on the race. In 1960, then-Vice President Richard Nixon faced off against John F. Kennedy. Nixon gave what appeared on television to be a poor performance, and went on to lose to Kennedy in the closest presidential election in American history. This time around, experts say Gore has an edge going in, but he could easily slip from the upper ground. With much of the electorate expecting Gore to easily beat the Texas governor these showdowns can only help Bush. "My expectation is that Gore has the advantage," said Jack Nagel, chairman of Penn's Political Science Department. Penn Political Science professor Jerome Maddox agreed. "If anything, [Gore] was probably overaggressive with [Democratic opponent Bill Bradley," he said, referring to the contentious primary season debates between Gore and his opponent. Bradley's poor performance was followed by a lackluster showing in New Hampshire and then huge losses in primaries across the country. Still, Gore's advantage may prove a hindrance to his campaign. "If Gore doesn't perform up to expectations," Maddox said, "we'd see a negative marginal effect." Despite Gore's perceived debating skills, Bush said he was not at all deterred. "I know the man is a great debater," he said. "But what Americans want is a great leader." This year's debates will be the CPD's fourth series of presidential debates since its creation by both major parties in 1987. The CPD took control from the League of Women Voters when it held the Bush-Clinton faceoffs in 1992. Annenberg Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who was a member of the task force recommending the establishment of the CPD, said that the original intent was to get candidates who had not yet been nominated to agree in January on a debate schedule, should they be their party's contender. The CPD was supposed to "get rid of the debate on debates," Jamieson said. "It never worked." The debate process has, in fact, been riddled with problems since the inception of the CPD. In 1992, the debates welcomed a third candidate in billionaire Ross Perot, who went on to win 19 percent of the popular vote. Four years later, Perot had to sue to get invited to the showdowns. This year, the CPD set up a minimum popularity threshold that candidates must meet in order to participate in the debates, which virtually excludes Green Party nominee Ralph Nader and Reform Party nominee Patrick Buchanan. And the major parties have never been able to agree with the CPD at a time prior to the nominating conventions. The reason that "we've had the problem every year is because the parties have no control over the candidates," Jamieson said. According to Jamieson, not having an agreement finalized presents a major problem to the political process. "The debate on debates takes time from discussing the issues when people start paying attention," she said. "We all suffer." The Associated Press contributed to this article.