Debate on Debates Heats Up : Bush Wants 2, Dukakis More; Talks Continued

The chairman of George Bush’s campaign said today that the Republican nominee was willing to have two debates with Michael S. Dukakis and a third between their running mates, but a meeting between leaders of the two campaigns ended with no agreement on a set of face-to-face confrontations.

Top officials of the two presidential campaigns met for nearly two hours. James A. Baker III, chairman of the Bush campaign, said Bush was willing to hold two debates with the first coming as early as Sept. 22, subject to agreement on a format and other considerations.

Dukakis campaign chairman Paul Brountas and campaign manager Susan Estrich said after the meeting that the campaign would like additional presidential debates and that the Bush campaign leaders had not agreed to specific dates and places for the debates.

Differences Cited

“We want more debates; they want fewer,” Brountas said after the meeting. “We want to start them earlier; they want to start them later. We want to continue up to when the election takes place; they would like to end them much earlier.

“I believe that we will have debates. We will have more than one debate because it’s in the best interest of the American people.”

Baker said “we’re not afraid” of holding a third debate between Bush and Dukakis. But he said, “Debates have a way of freezing campaigns. . . . It’s our view that a campaign is a continuing debate.”

Bush, speaking at a rally at North Carolina Wesleyan College today, suggested that too many debates would be “boring” to voters.

The two sides agreed to continue negotiations Thursday.

Baker, Bush media adviser Roger Ailes and adviser Bob Goodwin met privately with Brountas and Estrich in the Washington offices of Brountas’ Hale & Dorr law firm.

The meeting came as the rhetoric escalated over Bush’s delay in agreeing to a specific debate schedule.

“There will be an opportunity to debate, and I just don’t feel under any great rush, frankly,” Bush said while campaigning in St. Louis. “We might meet somebody halfway, but I’m not about to be stampeded.”

Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk charged that Bush is using “long-distance innuendo” and “transcontinental slurs” while avoiding face-to-face debate. The Dukakis campaign, which has already accepted a bipartisan commission’s plan for four debates, said the next move was up to Bush.

‘Ducking These Debates’

“The Bush campaign has been ducking these debates, and it’s up to them,” said Leslie Dach, Dukakis’ communications director. “We’ve got a plan, and it’s a plan that’s been agreed to by both parties. If they aren’t willing to follow that plan, we’ve got to hear from them.”

Baker said last week it was unlikely a debate could take place before Sept. 20, effectively ruling out a Sept. 14 debate in Annapolis, Md., proposed by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and an even earlier proposal by the League of Women Voters.

The league, sponsor of fall debates in the last three presidential elections, is pushing its own package of four debates.

Nancy Neuman, president of the league, said: “We’re definitely in the thick of it. Don’t count us out.”

Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said the commission could hold a first debate in Annapolis on a later date. But she said there were few fall evenings available that would not conflict with television network obligations to cover the World Series, the Summer Olympics and professional football.