MIAMI, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Preparations are moving along for the first presidential debate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables next week, but some big challenges remain.
It will be the first time the two candidates will be in the same location together since the campaign began. In these days of terrorism, security may be the single most important issue.
About 2,500 journalists are expected to be there and have to be taken care of, along with the campaign staffs of both candidates.
The arena has 7,000 seats, but only a fraction of them will be used for the audience. The focus will be on the home television viewers.
Many of the decisions involving the stage, the camera platforms, the size of the crowd, how to block off the unused portion of the arena and other aspects have yet to be made.
General plans for the center have been drawn up, but the specifics and the details won't be completed until commission staff and crews arrive, a process that has already begun.
Construction will begin within days.
It's not unusual to stage the event in a basketball arena, but organizers have learned the hard way that if they're not careful, a crowd that's too large can turn rowdy.
In a debate between the elder George Bush and Michael Dukakis in 1988, the party faithful on both sides turned up and it turned it into a pep rally. Since then, the venues have been turned into a television studio by whatever means possible.
For that reason, don't expect to get in -- it's the toughest ticket in town, and maybe the entire nation.
The tickets to the first debate between President Bush and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry will not be available until a day or two before the event, and nobody knows how they're going to be allocated.
Those who usually don't have to worry about getting tickets like university trustees or big campaign contributors may be left outside the center, also the home of the school's basketball teams.
The only tickets available to the University of Miami will be allocated to students on the basis of an essay contest, said university President Donna Shalala, secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration.
So she is not the one with the ticket headache. That belongs to Janet Brown, head of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
"'Tickets' is my least favorite word in the English language," Brown told The Miami Herald. "I don't have a clue how many tickets will be available -- or when."
"I can assure you that we will not use even close to the capacity of the place because of security and noise," Brown said.
There had been no word from the Bush campaign until Monday when former Secretary of State James Baker signed an agreement for the president and Vernon Jordan signed for Kerry.
Shalala said she was never worried about whether the debate would take place as planned.
She said for one thing that Florida is so important in the scheme of this year's election as the nation's largest swing state few candidates would have the nerve to snub Miami.
The Miami debate will be moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS. ABC's Charles Gibson is to moderate the second debate Oct. 8 at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and the third debate Oct. 13 is to be held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., with CBS's Bob Schieffer acting as moderator.
The first debate will focus on foreign policy and homeland security, and the second debate will be held as a town-hall meeting with questions asked by "soft" supporters of each candidate. The final event will address economic and domestic policy.
"The debates will provide an opportunity for President Bush and Sen. John Kerry to have a serious discussion about the important issues to be decided in this election," a joint statement from the campaigns said.
The agreement stipulates the candidates may not ask each other direct questions; however, they will be able to ask rhetorical questions.
Each candidate will stand at a lectern during the first debate. There will be no opening statements, but there will be two minutes allowed for closing remarks.
The order of questioning and closing statements will be determined by a coin toss.
Lehrer's job will be to introduce and change topics and to ensure that the participants have time to answer questions. He is also allowed to ask follow-up questions.
This marks the seventh consecutive year starting in 1976 in which there has been a presidential debate or a series of debates.
Before the three 1976 debates between President Gerald Ford and eventual winner Jimmy Carter there was a gap that started in 1960 following the four debates between Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
In 1956 Adlai Stevenson took on Estes Kefauver for one debate in the Democratic primary, but Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won re-election.
In 1948 it was another primary debate between Republicans Thomas Dewey and former Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen. Democrat Harry Truman won re-election.
From there it goes all the way back to the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858.
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