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Election 2000: Scott Reed, Mark Mellman Discuss Upcoming Presidential Debates, Answer Viewer E-Mail

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Final preparations are under way for tomorrow night's first debate between front-runners Al Gore and George W. Bush.

CNN's Jonathan Karl joins us from Tampa, Florida. That is where Al Gore has been getting ready.

Jonathan, tell me more about this council of everyday people that the Gore campaign put together to help the vice president get ready.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these are a dozen people that the vice president has met traveling across the country, campaigning across the country. Interestingly, they all come from battleground states. They are also enthusiastic supporters of the vice president. But the vice president said that he has brought them along because he wants to get something, some kind of advice that you wouldn't get from the highly paid consultants, of which there are many here in Sarasota with the vice president -- wants to get some advice from the kind of people that he hopes will be voting for him in November.

But, again, these were not swing voters he brought in. It's not like a focus group of swing voters. These are all enthusiastic supporters of Gore and they all come from battleground states. So part of this is an effort to really get some attention while he's off the campaign trail. Each one of these people have become stars in their home media markets, you know, which are all in those battleground states. So each one of these 12 real people, they include a couple of teachers, a firefighter, a construction worker, a 14-year-old high school freshman.

KAGAN: Really.

KARL: These people are all getting extensive media coverage in their home towns.

KAGAN: And the idea is that he could be practicing for the debates, or an issue come up and one of these everyday people could say no, no, no, no, don't say it like that because we don't like how that sounds?

KARL: That is the idea, although I must say they are not there for most of it. You know, they are spending some time with Gore. They did sit in for a little while Gore was doing a mock debate yesterday, but they are not there during this entire process this. This is a very serious process for the vice president.

One of his top aides told me yesterday that this debate on Tuesday could be the decisive factor in this entire campaign, and we may know who, in fact, will win definitively after Tuesday night. So they know this is very important. And much of the time Gore is spending locked in a room in a little mini theater at the Mote Marine Laboratory with his top aides, not with these dozen "real people," as the campaign is calling them. But he is spending some time with them.

KAGAN: OK, and duly noted you're in Sarasota not Tampa. We have that part right now.

I want you to stand by, take part in our e-mail. I also want to bring back in Scott Reed and Mark Mellman.

Here is our first e-mail from one of the battleground states, from Michigan. It reads: "Hasn't Al Gore been set up for a fall? All Bush needs to do is show up and smile and he's the winner."

This one going to, of course, gentlemen, the issue of expectations. And in these days leading up to the days leading up to the debate, it's all been about expectation and talking about oh, no, Gore won't do that well, and trying to actually bring down the level of expectation for everybody so everyone looks like they do better.

MARK MELLMAN, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Well, I think, you know, if you rolled this back six weeks ago when George Bush was ahead by 15 points, all he had to do was coast through the debates. But I think that the dynamic is very different. In those battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, a number of those battleground states, Al Gore is significantly ahead of George Bush. George Bush has to come out of this debate not merely as a guy who showed up, you know, and didn't drool for 15 minutes behind the podium, he's got to show up and win this debate. He's got to beat Al Gore hands-down to change the dynamic in those battleground states to give him a real shot at winning.

KAGAN: Scott Reed, do you agree with that, or does he just have to show up and sound somewhat intelligent and capable?

SCOTT REED, FMR. BOB DOLE CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Oh, he needs to show up and do a lot better than that. But, you know, these gimmicks about flying people down to Florida to be really pushing the vice president on how to answer his questions, those are all cute for the free media leading up to this, but all that's off Tuesday night.

And Gore's got a real challenge here, because the reason the polls have tightened up about two weeks ago is because he got caught in a number of these missteps and these stretches of the truth. And he has a real problem when he talks in a debate of kind of talking down to people, talking down to the American people, slowing down his voice to this monotone that really turns people off. That's why the tide has turned. And they need to rein him back as they go into this debate because it's not a very good style for him. KAGAN: Jonathan, on that note, do you know if they're working with him on his style?

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: They better be.

KAGAN: Well, actually, that's one area where he's getting some advice from these real people that he's brought down. They've told him -- and we came in, they let the cameras come in for a working lunch he had with these 12 folks yesterday. And one of the major pieces of advice was, hey, be yourself, don't be too technical. Act like you're having a conversation like you're having with us right here. Don't get too technical, or in the Washington phrase, don't be like a policy wonk. So Gore is definitely getting advice on that front.

Another thing is, though, he earned this reputation during all his previous debates as being ruthlessly aggressive on the attack and really going out. And one thing that his advisers are telling him here is that, for this first debate at least, the important thing is to get a positive message out there. They feel good about where they are in the poll. They say that their goal is not to come out here and, you know, rip George Bush apart, but to try to use the debates as a platform, the biggest platform he has had yet, possibly 70 million viewers, to go out and present a positive vision.

KAGAN: In the minute we have left, I want to get one final e- mail. It's from Florida where you are, Jonathan, a technical question: "Do the candidates have the questions in advance of the debates?"

That's from Jane in Florida.

Scott Reed, you'd be able to know that.

REED: No, they don't. Everybody pretty much understands the basic questions that will be talked about, and you obviously need to be able to promote your agenda. But very rarely will a candidate be caught flat-footed and not have been prepped on one of the questions that they'll be getting.

KAGAN: Very good. Scott Reed, Mark Mellman, Jonathan Karl in Sarasota, thanks for joining us. Thanks to our viewers for the e-mail as well.

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