ASHINGTON - They seem to be the most niggling details of the presidential debates: Will the candidates stand behind lecterns or perch on stools? Will a moderator be allowed to show a video clip to set up a question? Will the audience be first-come, first-served or chosen by the campaigns?
Yet as the campaigns continue work today on completing the details, the questions about style seem almost as serious as the substance that will be at the heart of the debates. Perhaps no one knows that better than George W. Bush's father, President Bush, who agreed to a town hall-style meeting in 1992 that wound up working to Bill Clinton's advantage and played a significant role in helping the Arkansas governor win the presidency.
''It is the high risk that is live television,'' said Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University professor and author of ''Presidential Debates: Forty Years of High-Risk TV.'' ''No matter how much they try to pre-ordain what will happen, they cannot control it.''
In 71/2 hours of discussions yesterday, the Gore and Bush campaigns tentatively agreed on three formats, the Associated Press reported: one traditional event with the candidates behind lecterns, one town hall-style appearance, and one ''talk show'' forum. Negotiators plan to meet today to work out details, the AP said, citing officials close to the talks.
In President Bush's case, his approval of the town hall meeting format allowed an audience member to ask how the national debt affected him personally. When Bush stumbled with the answer, Clinton offered an empathetic reply that helped him in the polls.
Now, the younger Bush says he prefers a television studio to a debate hall. In his 1998 gubernatorial debate, in which the Texas governor had the upper hand in negotiations, Bush insisted on a single debate with a moderator in a television studio. Bush also sought a similar format in the presidential debates, seeking to replace two of the forums proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates with appearances on CNN's ''Larry King Live'' and NBC's ''Meet The Press.''
Bush's deep interest in debate formats was most evident in 1998, when his gubernatorial campaign team, the same one now running his presidential effort, spent six months negotiating the details of the year's single forum, sponsored by the El Paso Times.
''Bush was in position to dictate the terms'' of the gubernatorial debate, said Bob Moore, the managing editor of the newspaper who negotiated with the Bush team and moderated the debate. Bush insisted upon a debate in a television studio with a single moderator. Bush told Moore at the time that he had regretted his 1994 appearance in a town hall meeting with Governor Ann Richards, because he felt the questioners were mostly Democrats.
In the primary debates this year, Bush seemed ill at ease in his first appearance but gradually became more comfortable. Bush's best debate appearance may have been in a South Carolina debate on ''Larry King Live,'' looking comfortable seated at a table during a free-flowing discussion. King, unlike some moderators, tends to pose easier questions and lets the debater have more control of the discussion.
But Bush, by agreeing Thursday to have three debates in large halls sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, is taking just the kind of risk he has in the past sought to avoid.
The risks of formal debate are clear from past encounters: Gerald R. Ford, for example, said incorrectly that Eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination, and Jimmy Carter said that he took advice from his daughter, Amy. But the potential upside also is enormous, such as when Ronald Reagan, in 1984, artfully turned aside questions about his age by joking that he would not make an issue of Walter F. Mondale's ''youth and inexperience.''
All of this year's debates are expected to be controlled by a moderator. That is an important distinction because the media representative sometimes lands a tougher blow than the debater. For example, in 1988, Vice President George Bush was the beneficiary of moderator Bernard Shaw's question to Governor Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts. When Shaw asked Dukakis whether he would reconsider his opposition to capital punishment if his wife were raped and murdered, Dukakis gave an impersonal response. Bush benefited from the fallout.
Everything from set design to camera angles is up for discussion in predebate negotiations. Consider the format used Wednesday night in New York's US Senate debate between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rick Lazio to see how important such details can be.
Moderator Tim Russert set the tone with tough, personal questions and the two-reporter panel probed for highly detailed responses. Russert also used a video clip in which Mrs. Clinton charged that her husband was the subject of a right-wing conspiracy.
Gore has a reputation as a good debater, particularly because of his appearance on Larry King's show to debate Ross Perot about the North American Free Trade Agreement. But Gore also has a reputation for being stiff, while Bush can be more personable. Gore's biggest advantage is he participataed in many more one-on-one debates this year with primary opponent Bill Bradley. Bush, by contrast, never appeared with fewer than two other candidates.
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts a poll for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal with Republican Robert Teeter, said at a breakfast with reporters yesterday that only a third of all voters say the debates will be important in helping them make a choice. But 47 percent of the undecided voters say the debates will be important in their decision, Hart said.
''The debates, particularly the first debate, will be extremely critical for each man,'' Hart said. While Gore has to show the ability ''to relate'' to voters, Hart said, Bush has to make voters say, ''Not only do I like him personally, but I trust him professionally.''
John Aloysius Farrell of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
