Advisers to Bush, Gore Squabble Over Details

When Americans tune in to tonight's presidential debate, they will be treated to a discussion of big issues: Medicare, the environment, taxes.

But for months, advisers to Al Gore '69 and George W. Bush have been haggling over the little details, the kind many voters may not consciously notice--like the height of lecterns, or who gets to speak for how long, even the size of the candidates' greenrooms.

Their intensive preparations reflect the fact that presidential debates can turn on the most minor mishaps. And both sides have been jockeying for the slightest possible advantages.

According to the format worked out by the two campaigns and the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, each debate will last for 90 minutes and be presided over by NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, who brings moderating experience from three previous presidential debates. Lehrer has also been given leeway to create questions himself.

Both of the major candidates and their campaign representatives have had ample opportunity to fight over the more mundane, seemingly arbitrary aspects of the event, said John Scardino, a spokesperson for the commission.

There is "a fairly detailed list of issues the candidates and their representatives get involved in," Scardino said. He attributed this concern for detail to the conventional wisdom that the widely-viewed debates will have a significant impact on November's election results.

Of course, the campaigns have every reason to be concerned; as much as the public and press lament the carefully-scripted flavor of American politics, they have been historically unforgiving of campaign-season gaffes.

In 1988, Michael Dukakis's mechanical reply to a debate question about how he would react to his wife's rape and murder crystallized his reputation as an automaton.

In 1976, President Ford insisted to Jimmy Carter that there was "no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe," making his grasp of foreign policy seem shaky.

And in 1960, the image of a sick and haggard Richard M. Nixon may have shifted enough voters to tip the election to John F. Kennedy '40.

The caretakers of modern campaign teams do all that they can to preempt these sorts of blunders by carefully anticipating and avoiding unfavorable situations.

Tonight's debate provides a fine example of this caution. The Republican camp vied unsuccessfully for a shorter podium so that Gore's height advantage would be less apparent.

To Scardino, the most illustrative dispute centered around the auditorium greenrooms in which the candidates will rest and prepare for the debate.

"Most theaters are set up for only a lead actor and other supporting actors," he said. But the candidates' staffs argued at length about whose greenroom was bigger and how to apportion space fairly.

"You have to find a way in which you can equitably allocate space in the auditorium to each of the two candidates," Scardino said.

Before the Gore and Bush camps even entered the picture, however, the commission labored over the basic structure of the debates, beginning with dates and locations.

In addition to tonight's Boston debate, Gore and Bush will meet Oct. 11 in Winston-Salem, N.C. and Oct. 17 in St. Louis. The vice presidential candidates will debate in Danville, Ky. on Thursday.

The commission decided that in tonight's debate, the candidates would be allotted two minutes for their responses, with one minute for rejoinders. In all debates, the moderator is given "discretion to extend discussion," according to the commission's website.

The commission negotiated different formats for each debate: standing for tonight's encounter, a seated format for the second as well as for the vice-presidential contest and a relaxed, town-meeting format with questions from citizens for the third.

These formats will "provide for a more open and free-flowing exchange of views than in years past," the commission's website said.

After the main questions were settled, other no less weighty matters remained--like which candidate gets to walk onstage first.

Such decisions are so arbitrary that, "much like an athletic challenge [they] are decided by the flip of a coin," Scardino said.

With the rules decided, Gore and Bush must now play the game tonight. Tonight's debate will go a long way towards determining the biggest detail of all: who takes home the prize next month.