September 22, 2004
They will debate three times.
Negotiators for President Bush and Senator John Kerry have agreed to the first debate September 30 in Coral Gables, Florida.
The second debate in two weeks will be a town hall format with voters getting to ask questions.
This format has been one of the more difficult ones for negotiators for a number of reasons, including the possibility that pre-screened questioners might include some like those who invaded the Republican convention in New York.
President Bush has always won debates with his political adversaries, but this will be no cake walk for him, it is always easier to attack a policy than to defend one; always easier to propose anything that has not been tried, or has been tried and not worked, than to defend a policy still in progress.
Debates can be tricky and President Bush will have to be well prepared for what John Kerry will throw at him in a desperate attempt to reverse the momentum which, at the moment, appears to be going in the president’s direction.
But anything can change in the last weeks of a campaign, as history has shown.
I’m Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Watch his television show, After Hours with Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
