ASHINGTON - GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes said yesterday he has been clear in letting voters know what he stands for, unlike front-runner George W. Bush, and said he hopes for ''a real interchange'' among the six candidates in today's debate so people can judge for themselves.
Scheduled to join Forbes and Bush in Phoenix are former Reagan aide Gary Bauer, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, and talk show host Alan Keyes. Arizona's senior senator, John McCain, will participate via satellite from New Hampshire, where he is campaigning.
McCain led Bush 39 percent to 31 percent in Arizona in a late October poll by the Media Research Program at Arizona State University, but 18 percent of the voters were undecided.
A Boston Herald poll yesterday found that only 9 percent of Republican voters who watched Thursday's debate in New Hampshire picked Bush as the winner, compared with 16 percent who picked McCain. Overall, Bush and McCain are locked in a statistical dead heat in the Granite State, the poll shows. Out of the 402 voters polled, 34 percent said they were likely to vote for Bush in the New Hampshire primary Feb. 1, and 33 percent would probably vote for McCain. The poll had a margin of error of 5 percent. Forbes drew 11 percent of the respondents.
''I do want a campaign of issues and ideas and I think I've got some very exciting ideas out there and I hope that we have a chance in these future forums and debates,'' Forbes said on ABC's ''This Week.''
''I hope we have more flexibility so we can have a real interchange so the people can see what we stand for. I've put out there ... what I stand for and I wish that George Bush on some of these issues would do the same, and I hope that will come out in these future debates.''
Keyes, appearing on ''Fox News Sunday,'' said he took heart from the candidates' performances Thursday.
''The one thing I saw the other night that was clear,'' he said, was that ''Bush does not stand out in this field. Compared to the other folks who are out there, he does not have any special quality or ability that makes him an outstanding choice for the Republican Party. Nothing.''
