Gregg Preps Bush
By Thomas Rains
WASHINGTON, OCT 7 – After last week’s presidential debate provided a boost in the polls for Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Judd Gregg, the Bush campaign’s Kerry stand-in, could expect more sparring practice in preparation for Friday’s debate, experts said.
“The pressure is on [President] Bush now to overcome that perception that was left in the last debate,” said Alan Schroeder, author of Televised Presidential Debates: 40 years of High-Risk TV and a journalism professor at Northeastern University.
This time around, the president ” will understand the stakes,” Schroeder said, adding, “I think we’ll see a different style from him.”
Gregg is a veteran of the debate preparation process. He played the role of Al Gore for Jack Kemp in 1996 and again for then-Gov. Bush in 2000. Now he is playing Kerry for the Bush campaign. However, after the president’s performance last week, there have been some questions regarding Gregg’s effectiveness.
Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, said he thought Gregg may not have been tough enough with the president in the mock debates.
“That may be one reason Bush did so poorly last Thursday,” Sabato said. “It’s really important [that Gregg] be rough. It’s like a sparring partner.”
Joanne Ciulla, a professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond, had a similar theory about the first debate but said she believes it will be different the second time around.
“Bush has gotten himself so insulated from anyone who dissents from him,” Ciulla said, that he was unprepared for Kerry’s forceful charges against him.
“Bush is obviously comfortable with” Gregg, Schroeder said. “There is a personal relationship there,” and they “always want to pick people they know and trust because you don’t want people blabbing about the debate preps.”
Gregg’s office refused to comment for this article.
Ciulla, Schroeder and Sabato each said that while Gregg was a good choice for a sparring partner in preparing for the first debate, he may have focused on the wrong aspects of the bout.
“I think in the first session he may have focused on getting Bush up on the policy, since Kerry is such a policy wonk,” Ciulla said.
But Ciulla is sure this will change before the second debate. Gregg will likely “put the heat on Bush and let him figure out how to handle it,” she said, adding that Gregg will “throw some serious charges and insults at [Bush] to really try and get his goat.”
Gregg needs to “make him mad repeatedly,” Sabato said. Bush “needs to learn anew to take [criticism] with a smile,” because “he’s not used to being challenged. He was obviously angry” during the last debate, Sabato added.
“Everybody’s probably telling him, ‘Have better control of your face,’” Ciulla said, who added that rest is also an important ingredient of preparation. “You have to go in and be as rested and as sharp as you can be,” she said.
Schroeder agreed that the president’s facial expressions did not help him.
“The grimaces, the weird facial expressions, the blinking” Schroeder said, “contributed to his loss in the first debate.”
“You can compare it to Nixon perspiring on camera in 1960,” he added.
But there is only so much a sparring partner can do.
“No amount of preparation can turn a bad debater into a good one,” Schroeder said. When debate time comes, “it is up to the star.”
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