
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993                   TAG: 9311090161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GORE, PEROT FACE OFF

Vice President Al Gore and billionaire Ross Perot prepared Monday for what may be a decisive televised debate on the North American Free Trade Agreement, while the administration stepped up its efforts to sway undecided lawmakers and again denounced the anti-NAFTA efforts of organized labor.

The two camps agreed to a format for the debate - to be held tonight at 9 p.m. on CNN's "Larry King Live" program - that will permit the free-wheeling give-and-take that could make the event the dramatic highlight of the protracted NAFTA deliberations.

The two men will sit on either side of the moderator, and will take questions from King for 45 minutes and from telephone callers for an additional 45 minutes. No other rules will govern their interaction, said Tom Johnson, CNN's president.

In an effort to prevent any partisan group from dominating the calls, two CNN producers, well versed on the NAFTA legislation, will screen the telephone traffic. There will be no studio audience.

As is customary before such debates, both camps sought Monday to influence public expectations over the encounter. White House aides described Perot as a master of the sound-bite, but insisted Gore would correct Perot's misstatements about trade agreement over the course of the lengthy discussion.

Perot is "the master of the one-liner - he's great at the quip," said Dee Dee Myers, the White House press secretary. "But 90 minutes is a lengthy forum."

Paul Begala, a White House political adviser, hit Perot harder, saying that Perot's public allegation Sunday about an assassination attempt on his life by Cuban hit men revealed a conspiratorial view of the world that is also evident in his anti-NAFTA arguments.

Begala called Perot a "quitter" who had abandoned one undertaking after another in his career, and now wanted the United States to abandon its commitment to an international trade agreement.

"No one can out-soundbite Ross Perot," he said. "You can get twice as many sound bites when you talk out of both sides of your mouth."

Perot's spokeswoman, Sharon Holman, took a shot in return at the White House team, saying Perot was following his usual routine in his north Dallas office tower.

He "doesn't need anyone to prepare him or write one-liners for him . . . He's done 92 rallies about NAFTA, written a book on it that's on the best-seller list, and done two 30-minute commercials about it," she said.

Gore spent much of the day discussing the debate with his chief of staff, Jack Quinn. He was to meet Monday night with his longtime debate aide, Robert Squier, and White House aides David Gergen, George Stephanopoulos, Mark Gearan and Michael Waldman, for a mock debate session.

Some analysts say that if both men hold their own tonight, the debate may not change the outcome of the battle over NAFTA. However, if one of them commits a major blunder or scores a rhetorical master stroke it could tip the outcome.

Keywords:
INFOLINE

by CNB