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 Athletic Center at the university of massachusetts in boston, im jim lehrer of the news hour on pbs and i welcome you to the first of three 90minute debates between the democratic. Candidate for president , Vice President al gore, and the republican candidate governor george w. Bush of texas. The debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates and they will be conducted within formats and rules agreed toby the commission and the two campaigns. Tonight well have the candidates at podiums. No answer to a question can exceed two minutes. Rebuttals are limited to one minute. But as moderator i have the option to followup and extend any particular give and take another three and a half minutes. Even then no single answer can exceed two minutes. The candidates under their rules 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 we
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
In 1986 president bill clinton and republican president ial nominee bob dole debate debater. Twice next their first debate which focused on domestic issues. Jim lehrer moderate at the debate. Good evening from the theater, in connecticut, i am jim lehrer from the news, our on pbs. Welcome to the first of the 1996 president ial debates, between president bill clinton the democratic nominee, and senator bob dole, there were republican nominee. This event has been sponsored by the commission on president ial debates, it will last in 90 minutes, following a format and rules agreed by the campaigns. There will be two minute opening and closing statements. In between, a series of questions. Each having three parts. A 92nd answer a 62nd rebuttal, in a 32nd response. I will assist to candidates in adhering to those time limits, with the help of a series of lights, its about to both. Under their rules, the candidates are not allowed to question each other directly. I will ask the questions, the
How do you i think its difficult. Lets be honest about it, thats why we need Campaign Finance reform. Thats why i reach out to the perot voters. Theyre looking at the republican record. Whatever it is, whatever the check list was in 92, its all done with Campaign Finance reform. I worked with senator mitchell who played me in the debate warmup. We tried six or eight years ago as he appointed three people, i appointed three people to try to get Campaign Finance reform. We couldnt get it done because it wasnt enforceable. You suggested a commission, Newt Gingrich did, i did at least three our four years ago. We sent it to congress to vote it up or down. Thats how it works. Were never going to fix it by the problems because the democrats want a better veg, we want a better advantage as republicans, and thats not how its going to work. I want to touch on the tobacco thing. I want to go back to 1965. That is my first vote against tobacco companies. I said we ought to label cigarettes. I had