Inside The Debate Strategies

[Dickie Flatt]

Time

When a race for President gets this close, no detail is too small to leave to chance. Which is how it happened that a man who once oversaw Middle East peacemaking found himself haggling last week with one of Washington's most storied power players over the matter of ... colored lights. The proposal: to allow the millions of Americans watching this Thursday's first presidential debate to see the warning signal whenever George Bush or John Kerry has exceeded his allotted time to answer a question. It was a transparent gambit by the President's representative, former Secretary of State James Baker, to raise the famously windy challenger's chances for embarrassment. "Undignified," sniffed a Kerry strategist. "It's like a game show."

But Kerry's negotiator, lawyer Vernon Jordan, gave in—just as he had to Baker's earlier demand that the lecterns be an unimposing 50 in. tall and that they be placed fully 10 ft. apart, making it less likely that the 5-ft. 11-in. Bush will look miniaturized in comparison with the 6-ft. 4-in. Kerry. After Jordan and Baker finally came to an agreement at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, putting their heads together over a laptop to approve the official announcement, they headed for the bar. ...

Past performances suggest that both sides have plenty to fear in their three engagements. "You will never see a more personable John Kerry than in these debates," predicts Weld, who in June met at Bush headquarters with imagemaker Karen Hughes and White House communications director Dan Bartlett and since then has been offering tips to campaign manager Ken Mehlman. His warning to them, Weld told TIME, is this: "Watch out for this guy. He is incredibly quick and well versed on substance. Don't expect him to make a mistake or to come across as aloof. This is his turf." Kerry, after all, founded a debating society at his prep school. Bush's chief strategist, Matthew Dowd, says he knows Kerry's record and is not spinning when he describes the challenger as "the best debater ever to run for President" and even "better than Cicero." But Weld's advice apparently has yet to seep in. Bush's top advisers believe it is unlikely that Kerry will be able to make the personal connection with voters that can be so important in presidential debates. "The biggest test for Kerry," says a senior Bush adviser, "is whether anyone wants him in their living room."

Weld learned otherwise—the hard way. The well-liked Massachusetts Governor knew he was in trouble from the first of his eight debates with Kerry, when he pointed to the mother of a slain police officer in the audience and challenged the Senator to explain his opposition to the death penalty. Kerry began by calling cop killers "scum," then said, "I know something about killing," understanding that nearly every voter watching would make the connection that Weld, who had a bad back, had got out of going to Vietnam. "He then went on about his experiences in Vietnam," Weld recalls. "Everybody forgot what the question had been."

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Mizmoon]

1. I don't know how anyone does this stuff

So high stakes ... so public ... I'd pass out.

[hlthe2b]

2. And Bush is NOT a "sweater?"

But if Kerry is at his rhetorical best when he's feeling the heat, it's not the only thing the Bush camp has noticed about him. Even as Kerry was turning the tables on Weld over the death penalty, he kept wiping a dribble of perspiration that was creeping from his right temple to his eye. "He's a sweater," chortles a G.O.P. official, "and women don't like sweaters." That's why Bush's team was happy to have the Kerry campaign climb down from its demand that the debate hall be chilled to below 70 degrees. .....

[louis-t]

4. No, shrub isn't a sweater

reptiles don't sweat.

[whalerider55]

12. i figure him...

as more like a pair of bermuda shorts, with a hole in the ass. or a droopy bowtie. one that tilts heavily to the right.

whalerider55

[Moderator]

3. Dickie Flatt

Please snip this article. Copyright rules are: not more than four paragraphs.

[qazplm]

5. the question is

what DIDNT Kerry's side give up?

Good grief, looks to me like Bush got everything he wanted and Kerry got nothing.

[grasswire]

6. THANKS, Vernon Jordan

Geez. He conceded critical points.

The temperature of the hall because Kerry is a sweater.

The fact that the public can see colored lights telling when a debater is running overtime -- because Kerry can be long-winded.

The distance between the podiums to make Bush appear closer to Kerry's height. 5'11" as opposed to 6'4"

So what did ya leave us, Vernon?

[grasswire]

7. oh, and this

NO split screen or shots of Bush when Kerry's talking. DAMN!!!! That's when Bush gives away his real feelings.

And this fries me:

"After Jordan and Baker finally came to an agreement at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, putting their heads together over a laptop to approve the official announcement, they headed for the bar. ..."

[mhr]

8. Based ON This Snippet - It Seems That Kerry Is Already At

A disadvantage.

If I had been Jordan, I would have looked Baker in the eye and said coldly, non-negotiable.

Remember that Baker is the Baker of Baker & Botts.

Baker & Botts is the law firm that sent roughly 30 attorneys to Florida in defense of * and the 2000 election.

The man is a living snake and should be treated thusly.

When will Dems ever learn.

[emulatorloo]

9. Yeah right, I SO WANT GWB in my living room

<snip>

"The biggest test for Kerry," says a senior Bush adviser, "is whether anyone wants him in their living room."

<snip>

[MichiganVote]

13. So when has he been in the 'living room' except to spin another tale?

[UCLA Dem]

10. So why did Kerry even bother to have someone

negotiate? I can't believe Jordan gave into everything. Did Kerry get anything in return?

[sangh0]

11. I liked this line best

Bush's chief strategist, Matthew Dowd, says he knows Kerry's record and is not spinning when he describes the challenger as "the best debater ever to run for President" and even "better than Cicero." But Weld's advice apparently has yet to seep in.

The Chimp is still trying to figure out what "Cicero" means in English.