The Second Presidential Debate A Town Meeting

(page 1)

OCTOBER 16, 1996
SPEAKERS LIST: JIM LEHRER, MODERATOR
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FORMER SENATOR ROBERT J. DOLE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

JIM LEHRER, MODERATOR: Good evening from the Shiley Theatre at the University of San Diego, San Diego, California. I'm Jim Lehrer of THE NEWSHOUR on PBS.

Welcome to the second 1996 presidential debate between Senator Bob Dole, the Republican nominee, and President Bill Clinton, the Democratic nominee. It is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

We will follow a town hall type format tonight. The questions over the next 90 minutes will come from 113 citizens of the greater San Diego area. They were chosen in the past week by the Gallup Organization to represent a rough cross-section of voters as to political views, age, gender and other factors.

Each said he or she is undecided about this presidential race. They were told to come tonight with questions. Nobody from the Debate Commission or the two campaigns has any idea what those questions are. Neither do I.

We will all be hearing them for the first time at the same time.

I met with this group three hours ago, and we spoke only about how it was going to work tonight.

They are sitting in five sections. I will call on individuals at random, moving from one section to another with each new question, alternating the questions between the two candidates. My job is to keep things fair and the subjects as clear and as varied as possible.

The rules drawn by the campaigns are basically the same as they were for the Hartford and St. Petersburg debates -- 90 second answers, 60 second rebuttals, 30 second responses for each question.

The candidates are not allowed to question each other directly.

There will be two minute opening and closing statements. The order for this evening was set by coin toss.

We begin now with Senator Dole and his opening statement.

Senator Dole.

DOLE: Thank you very much, Jim.

Let me first give you a sports update. The Braves 1, Cardinals nothing -- early on.

I want to thank you, and I want to thank everybody here tonight. And I want a special thanks to my wife, Elizabeth, my daughter, Robin, for their love and support, and thank the people who are listening or watching all over America.

DOLE: In 20 days, you will decide who will lead this country into the next century. Its an awesome responsibility, and you must ask yourself, do you know enough about the candidates? You should know as much as possible about each of us.

Sometimes the views have been distorted, and millions and millions of dollars in negative advertising spent distorting my views. But I hope tonight you'll get a better feel of who Bob Dole is and what he's all about.

But I think first, you should -- I should understand that the question on your mind is, do I understand your problem? But I understand that if it occurred to me, and I might just say that I'm from a large family. I got lots of relatives. And they're good, average middle-class, hard-working Americans. They live all across the country. They're not all Republicans. Maybe all but one.

(LAUGHTER)

But in any event, I understand the problems. Whether it's two parents working because one has to pay the taxes and one has to provide for the family, whether it's a single parent who just barely pays the pressing bills, or whether you're worried about an education for your children, going to the best schools, or whether you're worried about safe playgrounds, drug-free schools, crime-free schools.

This is what this election is all about.

MORE