Final debate has Republicans worried
By Adam Nagourney
Washington
October 14, 2004
President George Bush and Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry meet in their final presidential debate today after two encounters that polls suggest weakened Mr Bush and fortified Senator Kerry.
The debates have left some Republicans concerned that the final 20 days of the contest would be far more competitive than they had expected.
Republicans who had been confident of victory before the debates said they were uneasy as Mr Bush returns to a format - 90 minutes of questions from one moderator - that has seemed to play to the strength of Senator Kerry, a 20-year senator and former prosecutor.
Senator Kerry burnished his credentials in the first two debates, averting an early collapse that Republicans had sought, and Mr Bush has lost some or all of the lead he had before their first debate in Florida, a series of recent polls suggests.
Republicans are also concerned that the debate, at Arizona State University, is the only one devoted to domestic policy, and polls show Senator Kerry has an edge on many of those issues.
"By any objective measure - if Republicans are going to be intellectually honest with ourselves - prior to the first debate, we were pretty comfortable," said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster. "It was a chance for the President to lay him out and just lock it. In the past two weeks, that's been turned on its head."
Continued.........
theage.com.au |
