Standoff Reached in Debate’s Game of Inches

If Sunday’s debate is half as contentious as the debate over the debate, it will be one of the liveliest ones ever.

As the event approaches, the campaigns of Michael S. Dukakis and George Bush are slugging it out at meetings over the fine points of the arrangements--such as how high the lecterns will be when the two presidential candidates square off in Winston-Salem, N.C.

A partial truce of sorts was reached Wednesday on that touchy issue as negotiators settled on Bush’s lectern: It will be 48 inches high, according to a source in the Bush campaign--a couple of inches higher than the Dukakis negotiators had wanted.

“We didn’t give an inch, but we got two instead,” said the source.

Indeed, politics, like most sports, can be a game of inches. And, how a candidate looks at his podium can have a lot to do with how a nationwide television audience responds to him in a debate, political strategists maintain.

With that in mind, the Dukakis negotiators had wanted both men to stand, even though their man stands about half a foot shorter than Bush. And they wanted Bush’s lectern to be no higher than necessary.

Throughout the negotiations, it has become clear that the Dukakis representatives believed the vice president’s body language was less eloquent than the Massachusetts governor’s, and they wanted the audience to see as much of it as possible.

“They wanted him to slouch,” said Larry J. Sabato, political science professor at the University of Virginia and avid scholar of body language.

Standing it will be, negotiators decided. But the Bush campaign drew the line at a low lectern. The lanky, 6-foot-2 Bush usually uses a 52-inch lectern, said a campaign aide, and going with one much shorter “would not be comfortable for us.”

As for the podium that Dukakis will stand on at the crucial face-off, a Dukakis aide said, “We have not decided on the height” and added that there has been no decision on whether the governor, who lists his height at 5-foot-8, will use a “riser” to make him look taller.

Negotiations are continuing on who the panelists and moderator will be. Strategists for the Democratic candidate prefer television anchormen for the Sunday debate and print journalists for a later confrontation, but Bush strategists want a mix for both debates.

The debaters themselves are getting help from all over. Among those coaching Dukakis are New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

Bush got a little advice Wednesday from President Reagan: “Take no prisoners.”