Election 2000 Presidential Debate: Time.com's Richard Stengel, Rich Lowry of 'National Review,' Answer Viewer E-Mail Questions
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our behind-the-scene technical people have been very busy. We think we've figured out the problem in New York and we can bring back the two Richards, Rich Lowry and Richard Stengel. We were having a conversation about tonight's debate. Gentlemen, can you hear me, and can you hear each other?</s>RICHARD STENGEL, MANAGING EDITOR, TIME.COM: Yes, I can here you.</s>RICH LOWRY, EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": Yes, Daryn, I can hear you.</s>KAGAN: OK, this is a good thing.</s>STENGEL: You know what it's like, Daryn?</s>KAGAN: What's that?</s>STENGEL: It's like the Ford-Carter debate in '76 when, for 27 minutes, the plug was pulled and nobody could hear anything. So, the question is, what did Rich do during those few minutes that they couldn't see us?</s>LOWRY: I was trying to explain to Rick I couldn't hear anything he said, but I did disagree with him whatever it was.</s>KAGAN: That's one thing you can rely on there. Well, let's continue that conversation and go back to our e-mail. For that -- and for that, we want to go to Mrs. Shay of New York. Her question is about disability rights. She's wondering about which -- "what are the candidates going to do for equal rights of the disabled, and what will they do to make sure the ADA laws are enforced?" Now, we heard from Charles Bierbauer yesterday that the Supreme Court will be taking up a big ADA case, the case of golfer Casey Martin. So we know it's going through the courts. Has this been an issue on the campaign trail?</s>LOWRY: It hasn't been much of an issue and I doubt Bush will bring it up. I think the ADA has gone too far. It's a great example of regulatory excess. But I don't think you'll have Bush saying that because that would be not compassionate enough to fit in with his compassionate conservatism.</s>KAGAN: And that would not show that he had a heart.</s>LOWRY: Exactly.</s>KAGAN: And, Richard Stengel, what would you say about that? Do you think we're going to hear about disabled rights?</s>STENGEL: Probably not. But you know what happens is they -- any question that's very specific like that they try to go to some set answer that they have, and Gore will talk about what government can do to help folks, and Bush will talk about the fact that government over- regulates. You know, with every question in the debate, they veer to their sweet spot in whatever the question is.</s>KAGAN: Lets get back to the issue of technique for tonight. We have another e-mail talking about that. This e-mail is from Roanoke, Virginia. The question is: What matters tonight, "the message or the delivery?" And that would hearken back to '88 and the Dukakis debate when his message was fine in his response to Bernie Shaw's question, but his delivery wasn't that great, didn't show enough emotion when talking about a terrible thing that could happen to his wife.</s>STENGEL: I think even what he said wasn't so great either. I really think, with debates like this, it's not a science. People are looking for something that you can't quantify, something that's...</s>KAGAN: That "it."</s>STENGEL: Yes, that "it," some tiny impression. And, really, it's not everybody, it's just the people who haven't decided yet in swing votes. So they're just looking for some kind of impression. You know, when Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, many years ago showed some patients some video of Ronald Reagan during the debate with the sound off, all the patients thought he was a comedian.</s>KAGAN: OK. Rich Lowry?</s>LOWRY: Which is probably the impression they might get from Bush at moments tonight. I think we can expect a lot of self-effacing one- liners from Bush. And that's one of his more winning qualities, is that he doesn't take himself too seriously. And that's one of the debits for Gore, is the impression that he does.</s>KAGAN: We've been talking a lot over the morning about undecided voters, but a poll number that kind of struck me as well, there are people there who will tell you they're for one candidate or the other but they're not strongly committed. Is this a big danger for the candidates, that people at home who think they've decided could hear something tonight and sway the other way?</s>LOWRY: Sure. That's accounted, I think, for the huge and unrealistic swings in the polls. It's just a lot of voters aren't that firmly committed one way or the other. I think one of the ironies of tonight will be that the voters that both candidates are trying most desperately to reach, those he undecided voters, are probably the least likely, actually, to be watching.</s>STENGEL: Right.</s>LOWRY: They're undecided -- exactly -- because they've paid so little attention and care so little about politics. So they'll probably be watching the Yankees game instead of this debate.</s>STENGEL: you know, I agree with that, actually. But the thing that they're both worried about is they're both going to be playing defense tonight. It's going to be kind of a snore, right? It's the first debate, it's Jim Lehrer, there's going to be no fireworks. What they're really afraid of is doing what Gerald Ford did when he prematurely liberated Poland in that debate and people went, oh my God, this guy's running for president and he doesn't know Poland is a communist country? They're afraid of making some terrible mistake like that.</s>KAGAN: So play defense, keep the errors down. Were we talking election and debates or the baseball playoffs? Either one it would apply. Richard Stengel, Rich Lowry, thank's for joining us.</s>LOWRY: Thanks much.</s>STENGEL: Thanks, Daryn.