Washington Wrap

Rules of Engagement: When President Bush and Senator Kerry meet at University of Miami Thursday night, the ensuing debate will be anything but free-wheeling. The debate is being sponsored by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, headed by the ultra-establishment lawyers Frank Fahrenkopf and Paul Kirk, and the details of the encounter were hammered out by teams led by heavyweights Vernon Jordan (for Kerry) and James Baker (for President Bush). Everything from the topic — foreign policy — down to the writing utensils allowed at each podium has been already agreed upon.

• There are no opening statements but each candidate may make a two minute closing statement
• No props, notes, charts, etc. may be brought in, no video clips can be played and no member of the audience may be cited by either candidate.
• The candidates may not ask each other direct questions nor can they leave the podium and walk in front of it (as Al Gore did in 2000).
• The order of questioning will be determined by a coin toss.
• For questions: the moderator will ask the first question, and the candidate will have two minutes to respond. The other candidate then has one-and-a-half minutes to give his response. After that, further responses of up to 60 seconds total are at the discretion of the moderator.

National Polls: As the candidates meet for the first debate, they face a poll situation that favors President Bush both nationally and in the state hosting the first clash.

LA Times:
Among Likely Voters:
Bush-Cheney: 51
Kerry-Edwards: 46
Undecided: 3
Poll conducted among 1,100 likely voters from September 25 through September 28. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.

Among Registered Voters:
Bush-Cheney: 49
Kerry-Edwards: 45
Undecided: 6
Poll conducted among 1,531 registered voters from September 25 through September 28. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.

Pew Research Center:
Bush-Cheney: 48
Kerry-Edwards: 40
Nader-Camejo: 2
Other/Don't Know: 10
Poll conducted among 948 registered voters from September 22 through September 26. Margin of error is 3.5 percent.

Florida:
CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Likely Voters
Bush-Cheney: 52
Kerry-Edwards: 43
Nader-Camerjo: 1
Poll conducted among 704 likely voters from September 24 through September 27. Margin or error is 4 percent.

CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Registered Voters
Bush-Cheney: 49
Kerry-Edwards: 44
Nader-Camerjo: 2
Poll conducted among 879 registered voters from September 24 through September 27. Margin of error is 4 percent.

Ohio:
CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Likely Voters
Bush-Cheney: 50
Kerry-Edwards: 48
Poll conducted among 664 likely voters from September 25 through September 28. Margin of error is 4 percent.

CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Registered Voters
Bush-Cheney: 46
Kerry-Edwards: 50
Polls conducted among 802 registered voters from September 25 through September 28. Margin of error is 4 percent.

Pennsylvania:
CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Likely Voters
Bush-Cheney: 49
Kerry-Edwards: 46
Nader-Camejo: 1
Poll conducted among 654 likely voters from September 25 through September 28. Margin of error is 4 percent.

CNN/USA Today/Gallup – Registered Voters
Bush-Cheney: 45
Kerry-Edwards: 49
Nader-Camejo: 3
Poll conducted among 799 registered voters from September 25 through September 26. Margin of error is 4 percent.

Virginia:
Mason-Dixon Polling & Research:
Bush-Cheney: 49
Kerry-Edwards: 43
Nader-Camejo: 1
Undecided: 7
Poll conducted among 625 likely voters from September 24 through 27. Margin of error is 4 percent.

Michigan:
Free Press Poll:
Bush-Cheney: 46
Kerry-Edwards: 48
Poll conducted among 830 registered voters from September 22 through September 28. Margin of error is 3.5 percent.

Bush in Florida: Debate prep for President Bush gets put on hold Thursday morning as he inspects damage inflicted by Hurricane Jeanne on the east coast Florida town of Stuart, about a 100 miles north of Miami. He made a similar tour on Wednesday at an orange grove hit hard by the series of hurricanes. And Mr. Bush again promised Floridians, who are essential to his re-election, that more disaster relief is on the way. CBS News' Mark Knoller has this:

Knoller Nugget: For the first debate, as is often the case with big political events, so much has been spoken and written in advance that they are anticlimactic when they take place. Even so, the Bush campaign is both nervous and fired up for the president's first verbal showdown with his Democratic challenger.

Senior Advisor Karen Hughes declared Mr. Bush "ready" and "in good spirits" for the 90-minute rhetorical face-off Thursday night at the University of Miami in Coral Gables. Yet Hughes is still playing the expectations game, seeking to low-ball Mr. Bush's performance. She said, "I think most Americans know that the president occasionally mangles the English language, mispronounces a few words here and there, and has not spent a lifetime practicing debating, which is what Senator Kerry has done. He's spent his entire life preparing for this moment, starting in prep school and during 20 years in the Senate. I think most Americans know that, but I think they also have the sense that at the end of the debate they will know where George Bush stands and that may not be the case with Senator Kerry."

Hughes made it clear that the president's strategy is to portray his rival as a serial flip-flopper on the issue of Iraq and the war on terror. "He changed again," Hughes exclaimed to reporters about Kerry's latest assertion about Iraq. She said Kerry "now says, six weeks after saying I would have voted the same way, he now says no, he wouldn't."

She went on to ridicule Kerry's response when asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer whether the war in Iraq and the ouster of Saddam was worth it. "It depends on the outcome ultimately," said Kerry. Said Hughes, "I guess that means if we win, it was worth it, if we don't it wasn't. That's leadership, isn't it?"

The president wants to be seen as providing steady, consistent leadership, while accusing Kerry of changing his stand from day-to-day. "We've spent the weekend," said Hughes, "trying to keep up with Senator Kerry's rapidly shifting positions, which has been a challenge. Now he's decided, no, he would not go into Iraq knowing everything he knows today."

As for final preparations on Thursday, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett says the president "knows his positions."

"You don't have to memorize something you believe in," Bartlett told reporters. But in his umpteenth swipe at Kerry, Bartlett said the biggest problem for Mr. Bush is knowing which Kerry will show up tonight.

As soon as the debate is over, President Bush will celebrate the outcome. He'll motorcade to a nearby exposition hall where his supporters will have watched the debate and will be ready to cheer his performance, no matter how he did.

Cheney in Minnesota: Vice President Cheney spent Wednesday in Minnesota fielding questions from Republican supporters at two separate Q&A events. In Lake Elmo, he sat down at the Machine Shed Restaurant to talk policy and, in Duluth, he conducted one of his favorite styles of event, the town hall meeting. CBS News' Josh Gross reports:

Trail Byte: Vice President Cheney did not shy away from trying to soften up John Kerry with verbal punches the day before the first presidential debate. "What I see a man who has changed his position repeatedly. He's gotten to the point now where he's taken so many positions that there isn't anything he can say today that won't contradict something that he has already said," he told the crowd in the Lake Elmo restaurant.

While the war on terror, Iraq, health care costs and the economy were certainly still discussed, the crowds also wanted to know about things outside the normal stump speech rhetoric. Each time, the vice president's answers also included a little humor.

When asked about the controversy surrounding the development of the Boundary Waters area (thousands of acres of undeveloped wilderness in Northern Minnesota), the Vice President admitted he knew little about the exact details. It did not stop him from drawing parallels from his own home state.

"Those of us who live in Wyoming, I've got to be careful how I say this now, when you're from a public land state, or a state like Wyoming, we love it. It's a fantastic place to live," he said. "And it is in great shape relative to, say, New York or San Francisco, in terms of the natural beauty of the place, but we get a lot of advice from New York and San Francisco about how to do our business."

He spoke briefly about snowmobiles in Yellowstone and access to federal lands before wrapping up. "You're always looking to balance out, if you will, the public interest in protecting and preserving a lot of those areas, as well as the need for folks that live in the area to be able to make a decent living and to use those resources, but use them intelligently and in a wise fashion."

The vice president also fielded some questions on baseball. Cheney is a fan of sports in general and when the televisions in the press area of Air Force Two are not locked on Fox News, games will occasionally pop up. When asked if the new baseball team headed for Washington should change its name to the Senators, he joked, "Are they going to be any good?"

"When I first went to Washington, we had the old Washington Senators there. I remember going out to the ballpark a few times in my youth. And then they moved and became the Texas Rangers, who were later operated by one George W. Bush," he said, speaking of the First Fan. "I think it's a great development. It really is. And Washington is a great baseball town. And so it's a positive, positive prospect."

The vice president will spend Thursday in Colorado watching the presidential debate before heading to his home in Wyoming. He will spend the weekend, out of the public eye, preparing for his own debate with John Edwards on Oct. 5.

Kerry Lying Low in Bal Harbour: Senator Kerry spends Thursday doing final preparations for the first of three debates with President Bush, lying low in his Bal Harbour, Fla., hotel for most of the day. Word is he will venture over to the University of Miami debate site at some point, passing buildings still boarded from the recent hurricanes, to check out his podium and the stage set-up. Following the debate, Kerry holds a rally at the Miami Arena. CBS News' Steve Chaggaris reports:

Trail Byte: Upon arriving in south Florida on Wednesday night, almost exactly 24 hours before the start of the debate, Kerry told a crowd of supporters that he is ready for his showdown with Mr. Bush.

"We're going to get an opportunity to debate with the president about the direction of our country. I'm looking forward to that debate," Kerry told a few hundred people gathered in a hot and humid hangar at the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. "There are real differences that separate us in this election and we're going to get ... an opportunity to talk about them."

Speaking of debate prep, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter revealed that Kerry, who apparently had never held mock debates in his prior races, was in on four full mock debates: three this week and one a couple of weekends ago at his Boston home. The questions were culled from topics that the Bush folks have gone after Kerry on as well as stories in the press.

One story that may haunt Kerry at the debate is his flub during a "Good Morning America" interview in which he explained that his now-infamous comment, "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it," was due to tiredness and it being "late in the evening."

The Bush-Cheney folks jumped all over that GMA comment knowing full well, as does any reporter in attendance that fateful March day, that Kerry's line came at a midday town hall meeting. When pressed on the incorrect time of day reference, spokesman Joe Lockhart dodged the question, made a crack about the media's focus on the inconsistency and just said that Kerry "was tired" when he said the original line.

Edwards In a Fighting Mood: John Edwards revealed on Wednesday that he speaks daily to his running mate and assured West Virginia voters that Kerry is "in a fighting mood" for the debate. Edwards himself will be doing his own debate preparations before leaving Washington for Ohio on Thursday afternoon. He will watch Kerry take on Mr. Bush from a Columbus, Ohio, hotel room and then hold a late night rally at the debate's conclusion. CBS News' Bonney Kapp reports.

Trail Byte: John Edwards returned to West Virginia on Wednesday to hold a town hall meeting in Weirton, a big steel town. The president of the Independent Steelworkers Union reversed its endorsement of President Bush in 2000 to pick the Kerry/Edwards ticket, citing the loss of jobs and the bankruptcies of 43 steel companies over the past few years. But the focus of the town hall was not on jobs or the economy; it was on the war on terror and national security.

Edwards explained to the crowd that the reason for the concentration on these issues was because that's what the focus will be during Thursday night's presidential debate. While Edwards did invite and receive questions on domestic issues like health care and education, the candidate often criticized for lacking foreign policy experience spoke for 15 minutes on the subject, denouncing the president's handling of Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The candidate also picked up on a report in a Seattle newspaper that cited then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney responding to a question following the first Gulf War as to why the job was not completed and Saddam Hussein was not removed. Twelve years ago, Cheney said it was because there was a danger of getting "bogged down" in the country.

"Now, 12 years later, where are we?" Edwards asked. "Oh yeah, we're exactly in this place. He knew. He knew, that's the worst part about this," he said. "They knew there was enormous potential of what we see happening now occurring and they still didn't have a plan even though they knew what might be coming."

During the question and answer period, Edwards showed off his diplomatic skills when a pro-life, self-described "Catholic-for-life" young man asked the senator if he would "stand up and fight" for unborn children. While the volunteer with the microphone pulled the plug and the audience began to heckle the 20-year-old, the politically savvy senator diffused the situation.

After asking his name, Edwards said, "I want to say this to Gabriel. First of all, you deserve the right to be heard. Second of all, your view on this deserves to be respected and this is not an easy issue. We know this is one of those issues on which good people have a different view, and my own view about it is, I don't think it's the job of the government to tell women what to do."

Edwards will leave Ohio for Chautauqua, N.Y., Friday to begin preparations for his Cleveland debate on Oct. 5. While Edwards often claims to campaign "seven days a week, 18 hours a day," the senator's schedule of late has been sparse, with only one scheduled event on both Wednesday and Thursday and he will have several down days leading up to the debate.

Spokesman Mark Kornblau explained, "He's preparing to face a very formidable opponent who has decades of debate experience and is known for his own brand of shameless and outrageous attack politics. That takes some time."

Quote of the Day: "What do those orange shirts remind you of? How about John Kerry's suntan?" --Lynne Cheney during a campaign event with her husband in Duluth, Minn., where the hosts of the question-and-answer session were wearing orange shirts. (New York Post)