By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON-Republican George W. Bush, giving in after a two-week battle over debates, agreed yesterday to Democrat Al Gore's demand that they meet in three prime-time confrontations sponsored by a bipartisan panel. The running mates will debate once.
Americans will see Bush and Gore go head to head on television Oct. 3 in Boston, Oct. 11 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Oct. 17 in St. Louis, with each debate lasting 90 minutes, according to the agreement reached yesterday.
Details on the format must be worked out, and the campaigns were to meet on that today. Bush's communications director, Karen Hughes, said the Texas governor is still pressing for the "more free-flowing and more spontaneous format" that had been a major part of his earlier debate plans.
Bush previously had balked at the proposal of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, but he has been under pressure to accept - not only from Democratic foes but from Republicans who wanted him to put the distraction behind him.
The agreement was announced by Bush campaign chairman Don Evans and his Democratic counterpart, Gore campaign chairman William Daley, after their first joint meeting with the debate commission.
"The governor is very eager to debate," Evans said.
"We've made great progress," said Daley. "The American people want to hear from these people."
The vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joseph Lieberman and Republican Dick Cheney, will debate Oct. 5 in Danville, Ky.
Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, both registering single digits in national polls, most likely will not meet the commission's threshold of 15 percent in media polls for inclusion.
The negotiations ended a standoff lasting several weeks in which Bush held out for doing only one debate sponsored by the commission and several less formal matchups in other venues, such as one on a special edition of NBC's "Meet the Press" and another on CNN's "Larry King Live."
"The major thing is that the debate is over," said Paul Kirk, co-chairman of the commission and former Democratic National Committee chairman. "The credit goes to the campaigns ... that they saw the wisdom of agreeing to it and getting this noise level about it behind them."
Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chairman of the commission and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said, "The American people ... are going to have a full airing of all the issues in this campaign."
The commission leaders made it clear at the outset of the meeting that they could not agree to moving debate sites - all at college campuses - that had been announced in January.
Only two presidential debates were held in 1996 and one between running mates. The record for presidential debates - four between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy in 1960 - still has not been matched.
