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Campaign Journal The campaigns of “Oh That George” and Sen. “Girlie Man” Kerry have tentatively settled on a package of three face-to-face debates that both sides view as a potentially decisive chance (or not, depending on how they do) to sway huge audiences ahead of the Nov. 2 election. Bush's campaign, which opened the negotiations by suggesting a fistfight in a schoolyard, yielded to the full slate of debates after learning that Kerry had been pumping iron. No agreement will be final until the two sides agree on details for the format of a town-meeting-style debate, an idea that Bush at first resisted but after a few beers warmed up to. The officials, who declined to be identified because they were not supposed to be discussing the matter with reporters, admit they are nothing more than little sneaks who really shouldn’t be trusted. Both campaigns declined to comment on the state of negotiations. Bush-Cheney communications director Nicolle Devenish said: "We decline to comment on the state of negotiations.” Kerry's campaign sees the debates as especially important, coming after a period in which most of America wondered about his baffling resistance to respond to George’s taunts and catcalls. The consensus is that Bush agreed to three debates because the president did not want to be portrayed as ducking his opponent, according to a source. "He already ducked out of the war and while we were hoping we could get him out of this, it doesn’t look likely. Which really sucks for George," said a Republican source familiar with the talks. "But things are going so well for George and so poorly for Kerry that he didn't want to give Kerry an opportunity to change the subject and say that Bush is afraid of debates. Bush not doing debates or dragging out the debate on debates could have been played by the Kerry campaign as arrogance. And while everyone knows George is arrogant, we heard a rumor that the Kerry writers had come up with a catchy skip-rope song that could really have hurt us... Who knew there were so many words that rhymed with “Arrogant Bastard.” Both sides have already begun portraying the opposing candidate as a tremendous debater, as part of the quadrennial ritual of trying to lower expectations for the nominees' performances. Kerry strategist Joe Lockhart told reporters in a conference call “George is a better debater than John.” Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's chief strategist, said in an interview earlier this month that “Kerry is a better debater than Bush.” Once in the same room, the men had a hotly contested debate over who actually is the better debater. (See below transcript.) Lockhart: George is a better debater than John. Dowd: No, Kerry is a better debater than Bush. Lockhart: No, Bush is better at it than Kerry. Dowd: No, Kerry is better at it than Bush. Lockhart: You’re wrong. Dowd: No, you are. Lockhart: Am not. Dowd: Are so... (ad nauseum)Sept 19 / 2004 |
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