CAMPAIGN WATCH : It’s Not Debatable

Trailing in all polls and with Election Day less than five weeks off, President Bush has proposed a series of four debates with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton. His challenge, by no coincidence, came just hours after the deadline expired for him to agree to a debate in San Diego next Sunday as proposed by the independent Bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. Bush says two of the debates he wants could use the single-moderator format proposed by the commission, but only--here is the hook--if the other two use a panel of questioners as he demands.

Some might see that as a reasonable compromise, reflecting the widespread assumption that a panel format would help Bush while a single moderator would benefit Clinton. But of course the whole point of the bipartisan commission was not to devise a process favorable to one candidate or the other but to find one that would best inform the public. The single-moderator approach, encouraging sustained give and take and follow-up questions, would clearly be the most informative. That ought to remain the standard.

Bush would have the debates on successive Sundays, ending Nov. 1, just 36 hours before the polls open. But two of these dates conflict with baseball playoff and World Series games, slashing into the potential audience. The faith of a public already fed up with cynical political maneuvering won’t be lifted by such a transparent ploy. Real debates are in the public interest. The Bush and Clinton camps, working with the bipartisan commission, should find a way to serve that need.