Presidential Debates

BECAUSE THE OFFICE of president is the most important, powerful and influential in the world, those seeking it must demonstrate their understanding of its significance and its global preeminence, not just their popularity. Third-party candidates are not seeking to become the next president. As they have said repeatedly, "they are seeking to give voice to the forgotten Americans" and to "return the government to the people." Third-party candidates can best make their points and accomplish the foregoing either in the House or Senate.

If there is going to be a presidential debate Friday of next week in Lansing, Mich., as the Commission on Presidential Debates has proposed, George Bush and Bill Clinton must quickly agree on the format. These things take a certain amount of advance preparation on the scene. Governor Clinton has agreed to the commission's format: the two candidates and one moderator. President Bush prefers a panel of journalists to a moderator.In our view a true candidates' debate, with a very quiet moderator but no questioners to complicate or confuse, is the best format.

FOR THOSE keeping a tally of the presidential debates, this is how we saw Tuesday's showdown: Al Gore was typically smart, if loquacious and a bit obnoxious. George Bush didn't drool, didn't smirk and seemed at least gubernatorial, if not presidential. Draw is the word most folks are using to describe it. But a personality scorecard isn't the point of this exercise. The debates are supposed to give voters a better look at the stark differences between the two candidates, and -- more importantly -- show how the candidates' positions hold up to sharp, direct criticism.

ROSS PEROT, the strongest third-force alternative to the entrenched two-party system, has been denied an opportunity to debate Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Bob Dole by the bipartisan (not tripartisan) Commission on Presidential Debates. And why? Because the opinion polls, those wildly swinging weather vanes of voter sentiment, proclaim that the Texas billionaire is wallowing deep down in single digits.Shades of the Literary Digest poll of 1936 that confidently predicted Alfred M. Landon's victory over Franklin D. Roosevelt!

HERE'S YOUR choice next Tuesday night as you curl up on your sofa and ponder which TV show to watch. Will it be "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"? "NYPD Blue"? Or a conversation between Al Gore and George W. Bush? In the ratings game, the Gore-Bush debate would finish last. That may be what Mr. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, seeks: a debate format short in length, suitable to his informal style and largely unwatched. That's the impression the Texas governor is leaving. He looks like he's trying to manipulate this year's presidential debates for his own strategic purposes.

AUSTIN, Texas - The George W. Bush presidential campaign, dissatisfied with the FBI investigation of the debate preparation tape that was shipped to the opposition, believes the feds suspect a Bush scheme to sabotage the upcoming presidential debates. Mark McKinnon, whose firm Maverick Media does Bush's TV ads, said yesterday that questions asked of his staff by FBI agents show "they had a theory that somebody mailed this as a way to blow up the debates, which is a ridiculous notion." Yvette Lozano, a Maverick Media employee questioned by the FBI, said the two agents who quizzed her for 90 minutes posited the sabotage theory based on the notion that a stolen tape might provide a convenient out for a candidate not eager to debate.

WASHINGTON -- As polls continue to reflect widespread public apathy if not disgust toward the two major political parties and interest in an alternative, long-shot efforts are going forward to crack the door open for independent and third-party candidates in the next presidential election.Leading the effort is Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who was the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee in 1988 and was elected to the House as a Republican in 1996. He is sponsoring bills that would make it easier for such candidates to gain ballot position in the various states and to gain admission to presidential debates.

WASHINGTON -- In a surprise decision, the Commission on Presidential Debates recommended yesterday that Ross Perot be excluded from this fall's televised debates, saying he has no "realistic chance" of becoming president.Perot, whose 1992 presidential candidacy was boosted by his participation in that year's debates, had no immediate comment. An official of his Reform Party said the party would go to court to try to block a Clinton-Dole debate, though similar efforts failed in 1988 and 1992.

WASHINGTON -- Ross Perot took to his favorite forum yesterday, talk television, with a new twist to his on-again, off-again designs on the White House.The Texas businessman said he might want to run for president, but not because he actually wants to be president. Instead, he said, re-entering the race would make it easier to buy television time from the networks for commercials pushing his prescription for the ailing economy."Interestingly enough, I'm trapped," Mr. Perot said on NBC's "Today" program.

WASHINGTON -- Citing a variety of reasons, most voters sa that they were better informed about the issues facing the United States in the 1992 presidential race than they were during the 1988 campaign, according to a post-election survey to be released today.The presidential debates, independent candidate Ross Perot's "infomercials" and better news media coverage all helped contribute to the impression, shared by 59 percent of the electorate, that there was a greater focus on the issues this year than there has been in previous campaigns, the poll found.