IDDLETOWN, Ohio - Vice President Al Gore yesterday said he still wants the first presidential debate to be held in Boston and ridiculed reports that George W. Bush's campaign is concerned the event has a tie to the John F. Kennedy Library.
''How far away from President Kennedy's legacy does he feel comfortable?'' Gore said in an interview, just before delivering an education address. ''Does he have to be 100 miles, 1,000 miles, how far? What is his minimum requirement?''
Gore made his comments in advance of his arrival today in Boston, where he is slated to address a downtown rally and attend a fund-raiser featuring the singer James Taylor. The vice president said his campaign team would meet tomorrow with Bush aides to try to work out an agreement on holding the debates. A deal might be announced later that day, said officials of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
Gore, in addition to increasing the pressure on Bush to debate in Boston, apparently also is hoping to tie Bush's reservations about the Boston session to the Kennedy legacy, hoping to score a larger political point with voters in both parties and independents who have fond memories of the late president. Bush has sought to portray himself as a ''compassionate conservative'' who appeals to members of both parties, but his aides have said it would be unfair to hold a debate in a setting with Democratic ties.
''I don't understand what their problem is having the debate near the Kennedy Library,'' Gore said. ''I don't think most Republicans would mind it. President Kennedy is honored in both political parties.''
As the debate negotiations begin, Gore stressed he has not agreed to Bush's request to drop Boston. ''I'm in favor of having the debate in Boston,'' Gore said.
The Boston debate has been set for Oct. 3 by the commission as the first of three 90-minute meetings between the candidates. The first debate is typically the most heavily watched and most influential one. The other debates are slated for Oct. 11 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Oct. 17, at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, an Oct. 5 vice presidential debate is slated for Danville, Ky.
Bush campaign officials have said for weeks they don't like the idea of having the debate in Boston, and Bush himself recently alluded to the event's tie to the John F. Kennedy Library.
''If it were at the George Bush Library [in Houston], it'd be helpful,'' Bush said, while denying that he was afraid to set foot in an area that is traditionally Democratic.
Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, stressed in a telephone interview that the John F. Kennedy Library is not cosponsoring the Boston debate and is only playing an indirect role by providing community forums scheduled around the session. The debate will be held near the library on the campus of the University of Massachusetts, where the huge media entourage is also to be situated.
Still, Bush aides have said privately Boston is their least favorite location of the three proposed sites, and have expressed concern that the commission did not designate a debate site west of the Mississippi. Just a week ago, Bush campaign chairman Don Evans said the Texas governor would not back down from his insistence on one debate and two television appearances, which would eliminate the Boston session. Evans said there was no room for negotiation. ''This is our final answer,'' he said. ''This is it.''
But yesterday, Bush spokesman Ken Lisaius said that the campaign has decided not to rule out any potential debate. Asked whether there was now a possibility a debate would be in Boston, Lisaius responded:
''Nothing is in or out. It is more of a question of that we want to have debates held around the country and the initial round of cities lacked a city on the West Coast.''
Brown said that, despite the delay in forging an agreement acceptable to both campaigns, ''it is not too late'' to hold the Boston debate.
The Kennedy Library, she said, ''has nothing to do with hosting the debate or the media filing center and there is no relationship between the library and UMass.''
Bush last month tried to alter the agenda of the Commission on Presidential Debates, proposing that the first two sessions occur on television on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' and CNN's ''Larry King Live.'' But Gore, who had said he would debate Bush ''anytime, anywhere,'' said he would not agree to such sessions unless Bush first agreed to the three commission debates. Then Bush ran an ad that chided Gore for not keeping his word on the debates.
Gore, by attacking the Bush campaign's disenchantment with Boston, apparently thinks he has found an effective way to strike back at Bush.
''Boston is a great city,'' Gore said ''We ought not to scratch it off the list for petty partisan purposes.
Bush's weeks-long refusal to agree to the debate has irked some Republicans who feared it was sending a message that he was afraid to debate Gore - a frustration that grew as Gore and Bush have drawn even in the polls. Bush aides, after initially insisting that they would not modify their proposal, have said recently that they were ready to negotiate for as many as three prime-time debates.
Gore yesterday made his comments on a day devoted to highlighting his emphasis on education. Temporarily putting aside Air Force Two and his black limousine, Gore and his running mate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, traveled across this politically critical state in a pair of yellow school buses - although they were followed by a lengthy motorcade.
