Bush, Gore march to lecterns again

Bush, Gore march to lecterns again
REUTERS

WINSTON-SALEM, (N.C), Oct 11: George W. Bush and Al Gore square off for their second debate on Wednesday, both searching for the words and demeanour that might help break the deadlock in their neck-and-neck presidential race.

Bush, the Governor of Texas, seemed to have some momentum going into the 90-minute encounter with the Vice President, 27 days before the November 7 election.

A Reuters/MSNBC poll has shown Bush whittling down a six-point Gore lead since the first debate last week to take a statistically insignificant one-point lead on Tuesday.

The race has swung one way and another in the past six weeks, with undecided voters reacting to the latest incidents on the campaign trail.

The debate presents both men with challenges. Their non-verbal cues smirks, sighs, rolling eyeballs, smiles and general body language seem to rate as highly in the minds of some voters as anything they may or may not say. Gore acknowledged in a television interview on Tuesday he had been hurt by sighing somewhat theatrically while Bush was speaking during the first debate and he promised not to do it again. "Well, first of all, I think I'll sigh a little bit less," Gore said.

He also appeared to acknowledge a need to avoid exaggerations of fact and embellishments of his record. "I take responsibility for getting some of the details wrong," Gore said.

The debate at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at 9 pm on Wednesday (0100 GMT on Thursday) has a format that may favour Bush.

The two candidates will sit around a table answering questions from moderator Jim Lehrer, instead of standing behind lecterns as they did last week.

That may produce a more informal, conversational exchange that could play to Bush's personal strength. The two will meet for a third and final debate on October 17 in St Louis.

Stung by Bush's attacks on Gore's so-called exaggerations and embellishments, the Gore campaign is firing back with a series of television ads attacking Bush's record as governor of Texas and his tendency to get tongue-tied.

"There's nothing wrong with your screen," one ad says, showing the smoggy skyline of Houston. "What you're seeing is the worst smog in America. The city: Houston, Texas."

The ad campaign will cost several million dollars and run in such contested states as Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Delaware, Missouri, Iowa and West Virginia.

With events in the Middle East and Yugoslavia dominating the headlines, foreign policy is likely to loom large in the debate, giving Bush a chance to rebut Gore's suggestions that he lacks experience in that area.

Gore aides clearly saw foreign affairs as Bush's Achilles' heel. "The fact that he can't articulate a vision of foreign policy means he is inept on foreign policy," said one senior aide, who asked not to be identified.

"It's not about whether he can pronounce a name, it's about whether he can pronounce a policy. And right now his (foreign) policy is to ask other people what they think he ought to do," the aide said.

Bush campaign officials said the governor would be fine on foreign affairs."Foreign policy is very much in the news this week," Bush campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes said. "I do think, particularly given the vice president's misstatements on Russia during the debate last Tuesday, that we certainly hope it will be an issue."

The Bush campaign was stung when Gore seemed to pooh-pooh a suggestion by Bush during the debate that Russian influence be brought to bear on Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The Bush people have said President Bill Clinton had quietly been communicating with the Russians to do just what Bush suggested.

"The Vice President either didn't know what his own administration was doing or was trying to make political points by mocking the governor when he suggested doing exactly what President Clinton was doing, which was to urge Russia to use its influence in the Balkans to persuade Milosevic to step down," Hughes said.