John Kerry Calls For Monthly Debates Starting This Spring
LIN: The campaign trail took Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry to Illinois today. He visited the site of some famous debates to suggest some of his own.</s>JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And so here in Quincy...</s>CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John Kerry is directly challenging his Republican rival.</s>KERRY: I am asking George Bush to agree to a series of monthly debates starting this spring, to talk about the real issues in our country.</s>LIN: The Massachusetts senator pitched the idea in Quincy, Illinois, where one of the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place almost 150 years ago.</s>KERRY: This should be a campaign worthy of the great issues before us, a campaign that truly can give the election of America's president back to the people.</s>LIN: Kerry's trying to focus on the issues after a week of a lot of negative back and forth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New government spending...</s>LIN: At the same time, President Bush unleashed a multimillion dollar TV ad campaign, charging Kerry would raise taxes and questioning Kerry's record on defense.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he wanted to delay defending America until the United Nations approved.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once again, George Bush is misleading America.</s>LIN: That forced John Kerry to respond with his own ads in key battleground states.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...wants to cut taxes for the middle class.</s>LIN: A Bush campaign official rejected the possibility that Bush would debate Kerry until after the Republican and Democratic conventions. The official response? The senator should "finish the debate with himself before he starts to explain his positions to the voters." The Bush campaign accused Kerry of trying to change the subject after Republicans criticized the senator for calling them crooked and liars, while talking casually with Chicago workers. The Kerry campaign believes that going head-to-head with Bush would highlight the senator's debating skills, which helped him win his tough 1996 re-election bid. Recalling the steamer Lincoln and Douglas took after the debate, Kerry joked he probably won't be sharing a train ride with President Bush anytime soon.</s>KERRY: Who knows? Maybe it's possible that when it's all over, George Bush and I will be able to sit down together at a Red Sox/Rangers game and shake hands as friends.</s>LIN: We shall see. This year's presidential campaign seems to have started earlier than ever. President Bush and Senator Kerry have already exchanged jabs, as you just saw, but will the negative tone continue? CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux reports.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After weeks of both sides swinging, President Bush's opponent seemingly offered an olive branch.</s>JOHN KERRY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Bush and I can do better. And America deserves better.</s>MALVEAUX: A call to drop the negative campaigning and a challenge to the president.</s>KERRY: I am asking George Bush to agree to a series of monthly debates, starting this spring, to talk about the real issues in our country.</s>MALVEAUX: While Mr. Bush has already committed to three debates, his campaign is still smarting from Senator Kerry's offhanded comment...</s>KERRY: These guys are the most crooked...</s>MALVEAUX: A Bush campaign spokesman said after calling Republicans crooks and liars, John Kerry is now calling for a civil debate on the issues. Senator Kerry should finish the debate with himself, before he starts trying to explain his positions to the voters. Earlier in the day, in dueling radio addresses, the president and Democrats faced off over the economy. Mr. Bush said his critics' plan would kill jobs.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want to increase federal taxes. Yet punishing families and small businesses is not a job creation strategy.</s>MALVEAUX: Senator Kerry has said he would not raise taxes, but only roll back the tax cut for America's most wealthy. Liberal icon Senator Ted Kennedy fired back.</s>SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Job creation in America is in the basement.</s>MALVEAUX: Some political observers say the early hostilities between the Bush/Kerry camps will make it harder to make nice later.</s>KEN RUDIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: With a 24-hour cycle between cable TV and the Internet, you have attacks followed by attacks, followed by rebuttals, followed by rebuttal to that, too. So it's -- not only is it uglier than ever, but it starts earlier than ever. And it's more - I think it's more intense than ever.</s>MALVEAUX: Both sides acknowledge the negative campaigning could backfire. So Senator Kerry offered this scenario.</s>KERRY: Who knows? Maybe it's possible that when it's all over, George Bush and I will be able to sit down together at a Red Sox/Rangers game and shake hands as friends. I'll tell you this. That would be an election that Americans would win in the end.</s>MALVEAUX (on camera): But considering the way things have been going lately, that's not likely. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.</s>LIN: Joining us now to talk about this and other matters, "Newsweek" political correspondent Trent Gegax and Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. Excuse me, Larry. I know we've spoken many times before. Let me start with you. What do you make of the fact that the Bush campaign is debuting its ads so early in the political season?</s>LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, there are seven and a half months to go, but you know, the election's tomorrow in their mind. And it ought to be. Bush has slipped well behind. Most of the surveys show either a tie or Bush losing by six to eight points. They can't start too soon. And I think they recognize that. They're behind the eight ball in a lot of the big states that they absolutely have to be at least competitive in if Bush is going to win November 2nd.</s>LIN: Yes, and it seems, Trent, that it's a race as to who's going to define John Kerry first, John Kerry or the Bush campaign.</s>TRENT GEGAX, NEWSWEEK: Yes, that's right. The definition is the word of the month. And I think the Bush people think that the voters really know George Bush. They don't know a lot about John Kerry. So they're going to get out there and define him as a soft, flip-flopping elitist. But I think they're probably surprised by how quickly the Kerry camp is counter jabbing. And it sort of reminds me of the -- back in 2000, the candy gram committee that Dan Bartlett headed up. They were very effective in counterpunching Gore. And I would imagine they're a little surprised at Kerry's effectiveness.</s>LIN: But Trent, what could the fallout be amongst the voters when the negative campaigning starts so early?</s>GEGAX: Well, they're engaged right now. I'm not convinced voters will hate the idea of a nasty campaign this year.</s>LIN: Really?</s>GEGAX: They're evenly divided right now. And especially, John Kerry, he's got an interest in showing people he's got, you know, the fire in the belly because he has this sort of lackadaisical reputation. And he is out there showing people he's a fighter. And that could help him.</s>LIN: Larry, what do you think? Do you think this is going to inspire voters? I mean, claims like, for example, President Bush is running in his ads that John Kerry, if he's elected, would raise taxes $900 billion. I mean, that is such a huge number, it's hard to even get your head around.</s>SABATO: Well, it is. Keep in mind, Carol, it's a long time to November. I think the key consideration is whether we go from legitimate negatives, which are really contrasts about issue positions, they're all right, to negatives that involve name calling or even investigation into personal lives. That would really turn voters off and I think turnout would decline.</s>LIN: But usually, those are the soft money ad campaigns that are run by the parties. How badly can it really reflect on the candidate himself?</s>SABATO: Well, I think people have gotten video-wise about these television campaigns. Even if they're "independent committees," most people who show up to vote can figure out exactly who's behind them.</s>LIN: All right, we've got a few seconds left. Trent, the Nader factor. Ralph Nader. Is he going to be an upset for John Kerry?</s>GEGAX: Well, he'd be a lot more dangerous if he was running as the Green Party candidate, but he's going to have difficulty getting access to a lot of ballots in states. So if the Democrats can use him to bring voters out, to bring their base out, then I think he could actually help.</s>LIN: Larry, does he - is he likely to have an effect in any particular part of the country?</s>SABATO: Well, he could. I'm betting this year, he gets less than 1 percent of the vote. In 2000, he got 2.7 percent of the vote. So he's about as third as damaging to Kerry as he was to Gore.</s>LIN: Thank you very much, Frank Gegax of "Newsweek" and Larry Sabato of University of Virginia for joining us tonight. We'll see what happens.</s>SABATO: Thank you.</s>LIN: It is early in the season. We'll be talking again. A bold proposal to avoid another political blunder. Up next, the latest on Senator Clinton's plan to get accurate counts on election day.