Mr. Lehrer good evening from the Clark Athletic Center at the university of massachusetts in boston. Im jim lehrer of the newshour 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 to between 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 follow up and to extend any particular give and take another threeandahalf 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