The campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry have tentatively settled on a package of three face-to-face debates that both sides view as a potentially decisive chance to sway huge audiences ahead of the Nov. 2 election, Democrats and Republicans said yesterday. Bush's campaign, which opened the negotiations by urging just 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, the party representatives said.
The officials, who declined to be identified because they were bursting to spill the beans early not supposed to be discussing the matter with reporters, would not say when an agreement will be announced. Both campaigns declined to comment on the state of negotiations. Both campaigns agreed to the dates, locations and moderators proposed by the commission. Commission officials plan to begin moving equipment and other materials into place at the debate sites today, on the assumption that their plan will be embraced by the campaigns. The Sept. 30 debate will be held at the University of Miami in Coral Gables and will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of "The NewsHour" on PBS. The Oct. 8 town-hall debate will be moderated by Charles Gibson, co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America." The last debate, on Oct. 13, will be at Arizona State University in Tempe. The questioner will be Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and moderator of "Face the Nation." The Oct. 5 vice presidential debate will be held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and moderated by Gwen Ifill, moderator of PBS's "Washington Week." Each of the four debates will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time and will run 90 minutes.
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