Bush, Kerry ready to square off

2004-09-26 22:40

Crawford - US President George W Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry drilled behind closed doors on Sunday ahead of the first of three debates that could decide their hard-fought battle for the White House.

Bush stayed out of sight at his Texas ranch, but was to campaign in the key battleground state of Ohio on Monday and later in the week travel to Florida.

Kerry left his home in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday for the mid-western US resort of Spring Green, Wisconsin, to conclude his preparations.

They were to square off on Thursday over foreign policy and homeland security at the University of Miami.

The 90-minute debate will be their first head-to-head meeting in a campaign marked by increasingly bitter exchanges, particularly over Iraq and the war on terror.

It will follow an emotional round of stumping with Kerry accusing Bush of "stubborn incompetence" in dealing with the terrorist threat and the president seeking to paint his rival as waffling, defeatist and even unpatriotic.

Squabbling

The sides have left nothing to chance, squabbling over details like the temperature in the auditorium, the size of the lecterns, how far apart they would be, and whether they could ask direct questions of each other.

The Kerry camp agreed to the Bush team's demands, including keeping the candidates three metres apart, so that the 1.93 metre senator would not dwarf the 1.8 metre president, in return for holding three debates rather than two.

Aware of the debates' importance, Bush started preparing over the summer and has had full-length dress rehearsals, with Senator Judd Gregg - who played Al Gore in the 2000 debate preparations - standing in for Kerry.

More than a quarter of voters believe this year's debates could affect their choice, according to opinion polls. In one survey by Time, seven in 10 "swing" voters said the TV sessions could be determinant.

Analysts said the debates, which date back to 1960, were not usually "make-or-break" affairs except for a few occasions where a major gaffe or stylistic flaw by one of the candidates helped turn a tight race.

But this year's sessions were particularly key for Kerry.

"It's always more important for the challenger because he has to pass over the threshold that establishes you're an acceptable leader," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Aides said Kerry would seek to demonstrate his strength, knowledge and commitment to battling terrorism and attack Bush's credibility on the turmoil in Iraq and homeland security since the September 11 trauma.

Bush, enjoying an edge in the polls on security issues, was expected to defend his decision to invade Iraq, tout his record in keeping the US safe and knock Kerry as dangerously indecisive and pessimistic.

The two sides agreed last week to hold three debates after weeks of negotiation.

Both campaigns were anxious to avoid major mistakes that swung previous contests, such as Richard Nixon's unshaven look in 1960 or Gerald Ford's assertion in 1976 that eastern Europe was free of Soviet domination.

- AFP