Good evening from the clerk Athletic Center at the university of massachusetts and boston. Im jim of the news hour of pbs and i welcome you to the first of three 90 minute debates between the democratic candidate for Vice President , president , are gore and the democratic candidate traditionally bush of texas. The debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates and they will be conducted within formats and rules agreed to buy the commission and the campaigns. Tonight well have the candidates at podiums. No answer to a question can exceed two minutes, rebuttals are limited to one minute. As moderator i have the option to follow up and to extend any particular given take it another three and a half minutes. But even then those who go answer can exceed to minutes. The candidates under their rules may not question each other directly. There will be no Opening Statements and each candidate may have up to timmins for closing statement. The questions and the subjects were ch
Good evening from the Clark Athletic Center at the university of massachusetts in boston. Im jim lehrer of the news hour on pbs and i welcome you to the debate between the democratic candidate for president , Vice President al gore and the republican candidate, governor george w. Bush of texas. They will be conducted within for th formats agreed to by the two campaigns. No answer to a question can exceed two minutes, rebuttals are limited to one minute. But as moderator, i have the option to follow up and extend any particular give and take 3 1 2 minutes. No single answer can exceed two minutes. The candidates under their may not question each other directly. There will be no Opening Statements but each candidate may have up to two minutes for a closing statement. The questions and the subjects were chosen by me alone. I have told no one from the two campaigns or the commission or anyone else involved what they are. Theres a small audience in the hall tonight. They are not here to part