09-26-2004

 QUOTABLES:

“Obviously, President Bush has had to practice twice as hard to learn all the different positions that John Kerry has taken on the big issues of the day," said White House communications director Dan Bartlett. "But he's ready to hold his own." (9/26/2004)

"He's [Kerry] a sweater," chortles a G.O.P. official, "and women don't like sweaters." (9/26/2004)

"The biggest test for Kerry," says a senior Bush adviser, "is whether anyone wants him in their living room.” (9/26/2004)

Terry McAuliff called Bush a `great debater," but said the president wins match-ups on "style not substance." (9/26/2004)

Debate practice

The Associated Press [LINK] offers an article on the preparations of Bush and Kerry for the upcoming presidential debate this Thursday night at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The subject of the first of three debates is foreign policy.

Kerry is prepping at a resort in Spring Green, Wisconsin, 40 miles from Madison, at the House on the Rock Resort. According to an article in Time magazine [LINK]:

... a two-room suite goes for $199 a night. The facility provides ample biking and hiking trails for a candidate who aides say doesn't like to do more than about two hours of debate practice in a row without taking a break.

Kerry spokesperson Stephanie Cutter says they picked Wisconsin for it’s seclusion:

"It's Wisconsin," said spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, when asked how the campaign picked the locale. "It's a remote area where we can concentrate and focus and still get out to talk to voters as much as possible."

President Bush targeted his ranch in Crawford, Texas, to hone up and reportedly spent around four hours preparing:

White House communications director Dan Bartlett called Kerry a "seasoned" debater against whom Bush would merely "hold his own." But then Bartlett accused Kerry of taking more than one position on foreign policy issues — the subject of the first debate.

At podiums set up in a conference area of the ranch, Bush practiced a couple hours Saturday and then another two hours Sunday morning. Sen. Judd Gregg R-N.H., played Kerry. Mark McKinnon, media adviser for the Bush-Cheney campaign, was the moderator.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric continued from the fringe, with DNC Chair Terry McAuliff weighing in:

Terry McAuliff called Bush a `great debater," but said the president wins match-ups on "style not substance."

And from White House communications director Dan Bartlett:

“Obviously, President Bush has had to practice twice as hard to learn all the different positions that John Kerry has taken on the big issues of the day," Bartlett said. "But he's ready to hold his own."

According to the AP story, Kerry will attempt to show the President as a leader who has made bad choices and tie that to the battle in Iraq.

As for the Bush campaign, according to Time magazine, it’s about getting Kerry to sweat...

"He's a sweater," chortles a G.O.P. official, "and women don't like sweaters."

"The biggest test for Kerry," says a senior Bush adviser, "is whether anyone wants him in their living room.”

Minutia detail has gone into the debates with both sides hammering out the details in give and take negotiations:

The Bush camp, knowing television viewership falls off after the first debate, made sure this week's matchup would focus on foreign policy, which they feel is the President's strong suit. Team Bush has studied old videotapes of Kerry's 1996 Massachusetts Senate re-election campaign debates to the point where advisers like Karl Rove can recite portions from memory. As a result, Bush's negotiators insisted on banning nearly all the stagecraft Kerry had used to devastating effect against his G.O.P. opponent, Governor William Weld, such as roaming from the lectern and asking direct questions. What Kerry's camp got were three debates rather than the two that Bush's campaign initially said it wanted. Getting three contests "was much more important to us than any detail of the format," says Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. A challenger always wants as many chances to stand on the same stage as the sitting President and take some shots, and Kerry thinks the debates are a place where he can shine.

The second presidential debate is scheduled for next week in St. Louis, Missouri, and will showcase questions from the audience. The third debate is scheduled for October 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe and will focus on domestic issues.

Will Rather be forced to retire this Spring?

The NY Times [LINK] has an article that touts the possible retirement of CBS News anchorman Dan Rather as early as this spring – a year earlier than prior predictions, which targeted March 2006 (Rather’s 25th anniversary as anchor) as the departure date:

Dan Rather's acknowledgment that he erred in broadcasting a recent "60 Minutes'' report about President Bush's National Guard service has further complicated two of the most delicate questions in television news: when will Mr. Rather relinquish the anchor chair of "The CBS Evening News,'' and to whom?

CBS has never disclosed a timetable for replacing Mr. Rather, who turns 73 next month and who has been the anchor of the nightly news since March 1981. But in the weeks before Sept. 8, when the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes'' broadcast its report based on documents it now says cannot be authenticated, officials atop the network and its news division had begun discussing a transition plan, a network executive said late last week.

The options under consideration include having Mr. Rather step down sometime next spring, perhaps near the end of the prime-time season in May, giving his replacement the relatively low-profile summer months to find his or her bearings, said the executive, who requested anonymity out of fear of being fired at a time of turmoil at CBS News. But no date had been fixed.

Who will take over the anchor chair? Two names are offered in the Times article: :

John Roberts, the chief White House correspondent for CBS News, and Scott Pelley, a correspondent for the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes.'' Neither is considered to have strong name recognition among viewers, and the network has not ruled out looking beyond its own news division.

With the CBS investigation into the Bush memos fiasco story, all bets are off as to how long – or short – Dan Rather’s anchor position will remain his.

Depending on how damaging the final report is to Mr. Rather, it could hasten his departure - or it could extend his stay at the anchor desk, particularly if the network decides that it cannot make a move until the controversy over the guard report has sufficiently cooled.

"Just dealing with this,'' the CBS executive said of the investigation and its fallout, "takes priority for the next one, two, three months.''

Who will make the final decision as to Rather’s fate? Apparently it rests with Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News, and Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS and the co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom, the network's parent company. Heyward maintains "there is no timetable in place'' regarding Rather’s departure.

"We have always said that there would be an orderly transition at an appropriate time,'' Mr. Heyward said, "and any discussions we have had are part of that process.''