Bush, Kerry Tentatively OK Three Debates

[Guaranteed]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040920/ap_on_el_pr/presidential_debates&cid=694&ncid=716

1 hour, 26 minutes ago

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - The campaigns of President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) are working on the final details for a series of presidential debates set to begin at the end of the month.

<snip>

"No deal has been reached. Reports of a tentative agreement — I don't even know what that means — are false," said Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush campaign.


Details of the debates were being negotiated by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III for Bush and attorney Vernon Jordan for Kerry. It was not clear when any agreement would be announced.


A person familiar with the debate negotiations said there was a tentative deal for three debates but that some details were still being worked out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity since the agreement is not final. But Devenish said Baker had told his staff there was not a deal.

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[A_Possum]

1. They make it sound like they're negotiating a corporate takeover

Or an international treaty or something.

Jeez, just stand up there and debate like a MAN, Bushie boy. Don't be scared. What's to negotiate?

[DRoseDARs]

2. As long as Cheney isn't there holding Junior's hand through the...

..."tough" questions that are sure to be asked. :eyes:

[LibDemAlways]

3. Four years ago chimp could swagger through

the debates making all kinds of promises he knew were a lot of bs. Now he has a piss poor record that, so far, thanks to the whore media, he hasn't been forced to talk about. He and his minions are scared shitless that Kerry's going to come out in take-no-prisoner mode and expose the naked boy king for all to see. And, he's no doubt equally terrified at the prospect of facing a voter who has a personal reason to be pissed about some evil perpetrated by the BFEE.

No matter how the media tries to spin it, the debates will not be a pleasant experience for the dumbshit. I'm anticipating a whole lot of flop sweat.

[Guaranteed]

4. Man, you just made me drool

I'd LOVE to see someone go ALL OUT on Bush. Just BERATE that fucking piece of shit.

It won't happen, though.

On edit: Never underestimate Bush, by the way. H.L. Mencken would agree- Bush's bullshit works. You can expose it for what it is, but you have to be very clear, and you have to use HIS tactics in order to do it correctly.

[flordehinojos]

5. Most assuredly, Chimpy wants moderators who are committed to protecting

him. He probably does not want to talk one-to-one to Kerry but rather prefers to talk about Kerry to a moderator so that Kerry would be forced to respond to the moderator ABOUT that which Bush is talking rather than directly to bush, one-to-one, mano-a-mano. Likewise he probably wants to have Kerry talk to the moderator about him and respond to the moderator about THE ISSUES that Kerry is talking to the moderator about. It is sort of like the gossip game. people hear what you have to say through a filer. in this case the moderator would be the filter and different people will hear different things.

IT IS ONE THING TO TALK DIRECTLY ONE-TO-ONE, TO SOMEONE ABOUT THEIR POLICIES, THEIR WRONGHEADEDNESS, THEIR ARROGANT STRUT. IT IS ANOTHER THING TO TALK TO A THIRD PERSON ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ANOTHER PERSON OR THEIR POLICIES.

IT IS ONE THING TO LET THE WORLD HEAR ONE'S BULLSHIT THROUGH THE FILTER OF A MODERATOR'S PLATFORM. IT IS ANOTHER TO LET THE WORLD HEAR ONE'S INCOMPETENCE AS IT SPILLS DIRECTLY OUT WHILE TRYING TO UNDERMINE ONE'S OPPONENT.

Chimpy wants to take the focus off of him as much as possible and James Baker is just the whore to get people to do what the bushes want and the moderators that will uphold, defend and promote the bushes. he did it in the 2000 election from hell. he will do it all over again. I can stand him as much as I can stand the bushes = Zero. Zilch.

[Guaranteed]

9. Totally agreed...Kerry needs to be able to get directly at Bush...

Talk DOWN to him...humiliate him for what he's done.

He has to shame him- and that means he's going to have to look Bush directly in the eye.

[flordehinojos]

16. I am just praying that Kerry will be able to do it.

And I hope they are rehearsing Kerry on just how to do it and just how to get past the moderator if Bush insists on talking through the filter of a moderator.

[wildflower]

18. McCain was able to do this...

I'm thinking of the now-famous exchange about the attack on McCain's service. But was there a moderator there? I didn't see that debate (or the commercial).

-wildflower

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. The wacko needs to be exposed

Kerry needs a team of coaches who understand Dumbyass' psychological makeup, so he can goad the megalomaniac into a fit of rage while remaining calm and on-track himself.

[GiovanniC]

13. Remember in the Gore-Bush Debate

When Gore was pounding the everlasting piss out of Chimpy, and Chimpy asked the moderator to rescue him? And the moderator did? I almost want to say it was Tim Russert, but I'm not positive on that.

Bush wants Cheney at his side, and he wants O'Liely, insHannity, and Nofacts as the moderators this time around.

[flordehinojos]

15. Yes, I remember one such instance.

The rescuing that I remember was done by Jim Lehrer of NPR. When he felt Gore had put pressure on him about (I can't recall what) he turned to Lehrer, without answering Gore's attack or statement, whatever you want to call it, and said something like, "Gore is attacking my heart", to which Lehrer stopped Gore mid-track, forbade Gore to continue on the subject and Lehrer proceeded to change the subject altogether to a more favorable one to Bush.

I still get the wind knocked out of me every time I think of it.

[GiovanniC]

17. If I Recall Correctly, This Was a Different Instance

Maybe we're thinking of the same thing, I'm not sure. Here's the transcript from the part I'm talking about. And you're right, it was Jim Lehrer.

===================================================================

MODERATOR: What about -- Mr. Vice President, you heard what he said.

GORE: He said if affirmative action means quotas, he's against it. Affirmative action doesn't mean quotas. Are you for it without quotas?

BUSH: I may not be for your version, Mr. Vice President, but I'm for what I just described to the lady.

GORE: Are you for what the Supreme Court says is a constitutional way of having affirmative action?

MODERATOR: Let's go on to another --

GORE: I think that speaks for itself.

BUSH: No, it doesn't speak for itself, Mr. Vice President, it speaks for the fact that there are certain rules in this (he's referring to the debate rules) that we all agree to, but evidently rules don't mean anything.

MODERATOR: The question is for you, Vice President Gore, and Lisa Kee will ask it. Lisa Kee, where are you? There we go, sorry.

[flordehinojos]

22. Ah! You got the transcript of that debate.

Perhaps somewhere in it you can locate where Bush tells Lehrer,
"he" (meaning Gore) "is judging my heart" as a ploy to get off from answering whatever the point (which I can't remember) it was that Gore was driving. Lehrer bit into it just as he did in the above example.

[GiovanniC]

23. I Think This Might Be It

GORE: Well, I don't know about all these percentages that he throws out, but I do know that -- I speculate that the reason why he didn't answer your question directly as to whether my numbers were right, the facts were right about Texas ranking dead last in families with health insurance and 49th out of 50 for both children and women, is because those facts are correct. And as for why it happened, I'm no expert on the Texas procedures, but what my friends there tell me is that the governor opposed a measure put forward by Democrats in the legislature to expand the number of children that would be covered. And instead directed the money toward a tax cut, a significant part of which went to wealthy interests... (some snippage)

LEHRER: Let's let the governor respond to that. Are those numbers correct? Are his charges correct?

BUSH: If he's trying to allege that I'm a hard-hearted person and I don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong. We've spent $4.7 billion a year in the State of Texas for uninsured people. And they get health care. Now, it's not the most efficient way to get people health care. But I want to remind you, the number of uninsured in America during their watch has increased... (some snippage)

LEHRER: Let me put that directly to you, Vice President Gore. The reason you brought this up, is it -- are you suggesting that those numbers and that record will reflect the way Governor Bush will operate in this area of health insurance as president?

GORE: Yes, yes. But it's not a statement about his heart. I don't claim to know his heart. I think he's a good person. I make no allegations about that. I believe him when he says that he has a good heart. I know enough about your story to admire a lot of the things that you have done as a person. But I think it's about his priorities. And let me tell you exactly why I think that the choice he made to give a tax cut for the oil companies and others before addressing this -- I mean, if you were the governor of a state that was dead last in health care for families, and all of a sudden you found yourself with the biggest surplus your state had ever had in its history, wouldn't you want to maybe use some of it to climb from 50th to, say, 45 or 40 or something or maybe better? I would. Now, but here is why it's directly relevant, Jim. Because by his own budget numbers, his proposals for spending on tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy are more than the new spending proposals that he has made for health care and education and national defense all combined. According to his own numbers. So it's not a question of his heart, as far as I know. It's a question of priorities and values. See, you know --

LEHRER: Let me ask --

BUSH: First of all, that's simply not true what he just said, of course. And secondly, I repeat to you --

LEHRER: What is not true, Governor?

BUSH: That we spent -- the top 1% receive 223 as opposed to 445 billion in new spending. The top -- let's talk about my tax plan. The top 1% will pay one-third of all the federal income taxes. And in return, get one-fifth of the benefits, because most of the tax reductions go to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder. That stands in stark contrast, by the way, to a man who is going to leave 50 million -- 50 million Americans out of tax relief. We just have a different point of view. It's a totally different point of view. He believes only the right people ought to get tax relief. I believe everybody who pays taxes ought to get tax relief... (snippage)

LEHRER: New question, new subject.

[flordehinojos]

24. Yes, this is it! And a little bit differently than I recalled it ... but

still Bush was trying to make it a question about his heart and at a convenient time Lehrer cut Gore off.

GORE SHOULD HAVE ACTUALLY SAID, YES. IT IS A QUESTION ABOUT HIS HEART. THE MAN HAS A RUTHLESS, SOCIOPATHIC, NARCISSISTIC HEART WHICH ONLY CARES ABOUT HIMSELF.

Had we been all the wiser then ... that is exactly what these exchanges show: manipulate the truth to make himself look good.

Thanks a lot again for this.

[Andromeda]

6. Will they be sitting or standing?

I heard Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC say that Bush's handlers want the candidates to debate sitting down because Kerry is taller and would overshadow the Chimp-in-chief.

Then, she said (and I'm paraphrasing) that Cheney would be sitting when he debates Edwards for "obvious reasons." LOL:D

[radfringe]

7. does it qualify as a flip-flop or a wishy-washy?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34246-2004Sep19

--snip--

Bush's campaign opened the negotiations by urging just two sessions involving Bush and Kerry, but yielded to the full slate of debates that had been proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to people in both parties who were briefed on the negotiations.

No agreement will be final until the two sides agree on details for the format of a town-meeting-style debate that Bush at first resisted but now is willing to endorse, the party representatives said.

[anarchy1999]

8. Key to it all:

"But Devenish said Baker had told his staff there was not a deal."

Repeat, BAKER TOLD HIS STAFF.

Good old Baker, always rides in to the rescue of the BFEE.

Baker of Baker Botts etc in Houston. Just google the slime ball.

[OKNancy]

10. This morning on CNN they say - "Not so"

That the Bush administration has not agreed to three debates.that it is not settled.

[leQ]

12. the LA Times has the story on the repuke response

and it's a dilly:

"No deal has been reached. Reports of a tentative agreement — I don't even know what that means — are false," said Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush campaign.

attribution

if a communications director for a presidential campaign doesn't know what 'tentative agreement' means, then they're just too stupid to be running a campaign.

[NMDemDist2]

11. Now with Bill Moyers had a "teaser" for next week about the Debate Commish

being in existance for the major parties and candidates.

The teaser implied that the commission was a shill org for the parties, not a "bipartisan" debate society... nothing on the Now website yet

[peekaloo]

26. pretty much true.......Turn the debates back over to

The League of Women Voters!

[Justice]

14. Boston Globe /WP Reporting Agreement on 3 Debates

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/debates/articles/2004/09/20/bush_kerry_campaigns_reach_tentative_accord_for_3_debate/

One Open Issue:

Bush's campaign, which opened the weeklong negotiations by urging two sessions involving Bush and Kerry, yielded to the full slate of debates that had been proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to people in both parties who were briefed on the negotiations.

No agreement will be final until the two sides agree on details for the format of a town-meeting-style debate that Bush at first resisted but now is willing to endorse.

After reaching agreement on the broad outlines of the schedule, Baker and Kerry's lead negotiator, Vernon Jordan, were negotiating details of the town meeting over the weekend. Officials indirectly involved said they believed these were the only elements standing in the way of a final agreement.

[KansDem]

19. I just hope they don't use media whores as moderators...

Call on political/social science professors from the nearby universities to ask the questions; just don't use the media whores...

[Fleshdancer]

20. I'll believe it when I see it

in the meantime, I'm not holding my breath for any debates.

[robbedvoter]

21. Spin of debates is already written - underdog W wins, Kerry sighed to much

(or hickupped, or yawned, or gritted his teeth in tnhat democratic mean typical way) Debates will change nothing. Just register voters.

[arwalden]

25. Kerry's A HORRIBLE Debater... Everyone Knows This

all he needs to do is hold-his-own and not lose and he comes out the winner.

- Allen