Bush hits trail, Gore finishes debate preparation

Bush hits trail, Gore finishes debate preparation
REUTERS

WASHINGTON, OCT 2: Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W Bush prepared for their crucial first presidential debate in different ways on Monday as a new poll showed the Vice-President creeping back to a four-point lead.

The debate in Boston on Tuesday evening has taken on massive importance in what is shaping up as the closest presidential race in the United States since the 1960 contest between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

Fittingly, the 90-minute debate, coming exactly five weeks before the November 7 election, will be held at the University of Massachusetts' Kennedy Library and is expected to be watched by upwards of 80 million voters.

A Reuters/MSNBC daily tracking poll showed Gore leading Bush, the Governor of Texas and son of former president George Bush, by 45-41 percent. The two had been tied on Saturday, and Gore's advantage remained well within the plus or minus three per cent statistical margin of error.

Gore was in Sarasota, Florida, still preparing for the debate, while Bush ended a weekend of intense preparation at his Texas ranch to campaign in West Virginia.

As the far more experienced debater, Gore may face higher expectations in the Boston encounter, the first of three scheduled for the next two weeks. But the Vice-President must guard against his tendency to come across as arrogant or condescending and show his human side.

For his part, Bush has shown an ability to deflect the attacks of past opponents with humour but he must show voters he can master the issues and avoid verbal glitches.

Gore's preparations included some new wrinkles. He invited a group of voters he had met on the campaign trail to help hone his message by connecting his policy prescriptions to the lives of ordinary people.

The Vice-President's `special advisers' include a Florida retiree, a Pennsylvania steelworker, a Georgia firefighter, an Illinois high school freshman, an Oregon mother and a New Mexico construction worker.

On Sunday, Gore held a closed-door, mock debate in front of them. ``He is ready,'' Joseph Dulin, an educator from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said after watching the Vice-President square off against former White House aide Paul Begala, who played the role of Bush, a fellow Texan.

``(Begala) was real good,'' Dulin told reporters. ``But I think Gore will be better than anyone.''

Gore asked his other `special advisers' for their advice during and after the mock debate.

``We basically all told him to be himself,'' said Don Jalbert, a high school teacher from Lewiston, Maine. ``We think he is a nice guy and I think that is his strength. He doesn't have to get nasty with George W Bush.''

Bush planned to hold a rally in Huntington, West Virginia, and spend Monday night there before going to Boston on Tuesday.

Bush supporters fanned out across the Sunday television talk-shows to tout his talents.

Arizona Senator John McCain, a rival for the Republican nomination, who faced Bush in several debates during the primary season, said Bush had ``improved significantly''.

``I believe that he can, and has in debates that I was with him, come across as a person who is a very agreeable, a very pleasant, a very likable individual, and, at the same time, has an in-depth knowledge of issues,'' McCain said.

Republican Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma went a step further, predicting that Gore, who has often been called wooden and stiff, could come across as an ``Ice Man ... with all the personality of a razor blade''.

``I think you will see a gregarious, decent, honourable, likable George Bush,'' he said.

Part of each camp's pre-debate strategy is the expectations game -- lowering the stakes for their own candidate while raising them for the other.

Republican Governors Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts carried that ball for the Bush campaign on Sunday.

``If America was going to elect the president of the debate society, we'd go with Al Gore,'' Ridge said, ``But we are electing a president of the United States.''

Cellucci called Gore ``a tough, relentless debater'', but said Bush was ready.

``He's prepared. He wants to speak to the American people without a filter, tell them about his plans,'' Cellucci said.