Ready to rumble: Gore vs. Bush

Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore will hit the airwaves tonight as the presidential candidates square off in the first of three debates. \nThe first debate will air live on ABC at 8 p.m. CBS and PBS will begin their coverage at 9 p.m. A typical candidate-behind-podium debate, it will be held at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. After being virtually tied since the conventions, the race is the closest in 20 years. The debates could cause the first shift in public opinion in more than a month.\n"There have been instances in which people have pointed to the debates as swinging the vote one way or another," said professor Robert Huckfeldt, political science chairman. "I'm hesitant to make any predictions in who will do better or who will do worse. In 1980, everybody was anticipating that Reagan wouldn't be able to keep up with Carter in the debates."\nPresident of IU College Republicans Anne Scuffham said the issues to be brought up at the debate will "directly affect students' lives." \n"The issues they're debating are kind of setting the course for debates of the future, when (students) will be the ones paying the taxes and the ones with their children in schools," Scuffham said. "Social Security's going to be a big one, because it's going to run out. Gas prices... we all have to drive home. There are things going on in the Middle East that effect us here locally.\n"I'm graduating from college and going into the real world. These issues will directly affect me."\nSenior Marc Kelly, former vice president of the IU College Democrats, said the debates are a great way for students to see "what the candidates stand for."\n"I'm definitely worried about education," Kelly said. "I feel that the government should spend a lot more on education than it does already. I'm not even talking about college, but elementary and high school.\n"All issues effect students. If a president is in support of more military action against other countries, it's very easy for a student to have to go to war. Money could be taken from arts and education to pay for the military."\nLeroy Rieselbach, a political science professor emeritus who researches public opinion, said health care, taxes and education will all be serious issues in tonight's debate. He said these are the issues people are interested in and politicians "hunt where the ducks are."\n"Nobody has to make the point, for example, that prescription drugs are a problem for people, especially senior citizens," he said. "They vote and vote in large numbers."\nRieselbach said the education debates will affect parents more than students. \n"(Students) have little interest in politics, in general," he said. "Their lives are still in flux. They haven't really put down roots in a community as such that they say 'Well gee, what goes on in city hall and Washington, that makes a difference to me.'"\nRegardless of how many students vote, Huckfeldt still acknowledges the possibility of the debates being a pivotal event.\n"I have no idea whether or not the debates will determine who is president," he said. "If I were working for one of the candidates, I would assume that the debates could do that"