Al's Secret Debating Tricks

By Michael Duffy/Washington

As he practiced last Monday night for his debate the next day with Ross Perot, the normally restrained Al Gore began to argue aggressively and gesture wildly with his hands. "I hate to say this to you," said the Vice President's old friend Tom Downey, "but you're a little too animated."

Feigning hurt, Gore asked, "So you'd like me to be a little more . . . wooden?"

"Yeah," Downey deadpanned. "Play to your strength."

Bill Clinton had proposed the debate on something of a dare, leaving Gore only four days to prepare for the face-off. The President's aides immediately professed anxiety about the Veep's prospects. But Gore set out to beat the carefully lowered expectations. He spent Saturday alone reading a giant, black briefing book prepared by aides. On Sunday he reviewed videotapes of Perot's recent TV appearances and directed research into Perot's many claims, discussing lines of counterattack with aides. On Monday, a team of nearly a dozen advisers fired questions at Gore for two hours over a chicken dinner at the Naval Observatory residence and then held a mock debate on stools in a foyer. Oklahoma Democrat Mike Synar played Perot and White House Communications Director Mark Gearan stood in for moderator Larry King.

Perhaps haunted by his weak defense of Clinton in the 1992 debate with Dan Quayle, Gore took control of tactics and strategy. He told his team he wanted to perform in the debate like the newspaper reporter he once was, raising questions and hammering his opponent with facts. He came up with the idea of presenting Perot with a framed picture of Hawley and Smoot, the architects of the 1930 economy-crippling tariff. "Our principal mission," said Gore's chief of staff Jack Quinn, "was to demonstrate that the stuff Perot has been putting out about NAFTA was garbage." Gore spent most of Tuesday reading alone. Meanwhile, in an effort to set the volatile billionaire on edge, White House aides publicly called Perot "crazy." The psych-out war paid off: when Perot began arguing about the ground rules in his very first exchange with Gore, officials watching the debate at the White House resorted to quiet high- fives. Wooden never looked so good.