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
Highly contested races in u. S. History. The outcome was not decided until five weeks after the boaters went to the polls, when the u. S. Supreme court stopped the florida recount. This awarded the states electoral votes to president bush. Mr. Lehrer good evening from the field house at Washington University in st. Louis. Im jim lehrer of the newshour on pbs. And i welcome you to this third and final campaign 2000 debate between the democratic candidate for president , Vice President al gore, and the republican candidate, governor george w. Bush of texas. Lets welcome the candidates now. [applause] before proceeding tonight we would like to observe a moment of silence in memory of governor mel carnahan of missouri, who , along with his son and his former chief of staff, died in a private plane crash last night near st. Louis. A reminder, as we continue now, that these debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. The formats and the rules were worked out by the comm
Lehrer good evening from the university of miami Convocation Center in coral gables, florida. Im jim lehrer of the newshour on pbs. And i welcome you to the first of the 2004 president ial debates between president george w. Bush, the republican nominee, and senator john kerry, the democratic nominee. These debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. Tonights will last 90 minutes, following detailed rules of engagement worked out by representatives of the candidates. I have agreed to enforce their rules on them. The umbrella topic is Foreign Policy and Homeland Security, but the specific subjects were chosen by me, the questions were composed by me, the candidates have not been told what they are, nor has anyone else. For each question there can only be a twominute response, a 90 second rebuttal and, at my discretion, a discussion extension of one minute. A green light will come on when 30 seconds remain in any given answer, yellow at 15, red at five seconds, and
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
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