Gore jabs at Bush on debates

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 8/22/2000

ANNIBAL, Mo. - Vice President Al Gore accused George W. Bush yesterday of trying to ''stiff'' the Commission on Presidential Debates by failing to commit to national debates, and suggested that Bush was reluctant to discuss the issues.

''I don't know why he would want to duck that,'' Gore, cruising on the Mark Twain riverboat down the Mississippi River, said to reporters. ''I hope that he will reconsider it. I think, actually, in the end he'll have to consider it.

''It is unprecedented in modern times for a major party candidate to try to stiff the prime-time commission debate,'' Gore continued. ''I think that he's probably engaging in what will turn out to be a vain effort.''

Bush, in Milwaukee for a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, promised, ''There'll be debates,'' but he did not say when or where.

''I think what I'd like to do is have debates that are, you know, where people get a sense of what we both believe, and structured so both of us share our ideas in a way that people will listen to,'' the Texas governor said.

Finishing his four-day, Midwest campaign trip down the Mississippi, Gore said he had ''immediately accepted'' the recommendation for three national debates sponsored by the commission, which has been hosting presidential and vice presidential debates since 1988.

Bush has suggested five debates: three between Bush and Gore, and two between Bush's runningmate, Dick Cheney, and Gore's vice presidential pick, Joseph I. Lieberman. But the Texas governor has not specifically committed to the commission debates, which would be shown nationally, and has said he is reviewing other forums and settings.

''My opponent ... apparently wants to see if he can get away with some Sunday morning talk show when nobody is watching much, and substituting that for what the American people have a right to expect: namely, one-on-one debates in prime time when everybody can hear a good detailed discussion of the issues,'' Gore added.

But while Gore is needling Bush to commit to the commission debates, his campaign aides are not counting on a clear Gore win in the debates. They feel confident that Gore has a solid command of issues, but worry that Bush will provoke Gore into an attack mode, making the vice president look negative in comparison to an affable Bush.

They are also concerned that the public and the press corps have higher expectations of Gore as a debater, making the bar a tougher one for the vice president to clear.

Gore's aides have consulted Ann Richards, the Texas governor who lost to Bush in 1994. Richards, a Gore aide said, recalled how Bush cleverly made her look like a bully, warning voters in advance that she would go negative.

That is why, the aide said, both Gore and Lieberman have taken pains to refer to Bush and Cheney as ''decent,'' and ''nice'' men; they don't want to give the Republicans ammunition to accuse the Democratic ticket of negative campaigning.

Gore's weapon in the debates will be sympathy, not confrontation, the aide said. For example, Gore will question Bush on Social Security or prescription drug coverage by saying something like, ''What if I were a senior citizen, and my Social Security check doesn't cover my precription drugs? What would you say to me.''

''We're not going for a `Hail Mary' pass that will skewer Bush in the debates,'' the aide said. ''We're going for three yards in the dust.''

Since the Democratic convention, the Gore campaign has been trying to paint the vice president as a man of substance, and to suggest without directly saying so that Bush lacks political maturity and seriousness.

''The American people have a right in this day and time to be respected with an adult, intelligent discussion of what the major issues are, in a give-and-take without the slick image-makers intervening,'' Gore said aboard the Mark Twain.

Glen Johnson of the Globe Staff, traveling with Bush, contributed to this report from Milwaukee.