Mondale gets chance to fae

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nothing in
the U.S. Constitution, nothing in the
platforms of either the Republican or ,
Democratic. parties, and nothing in any
political rules of engagement says the
presidential candidate of one party
must debate the candidate of the other.
Still, a modern practice so new that it
doesn't yet qualify as a tradition made
it almost mandatory that President
Reagan take on Walter Mondale before
a nationwide television audience.
IT ALSO offered Mondale, who's had
to rail at the president from a distance,
a chance to be face-to-face with an op-
ponent who never mentions his name.
Mondale has had a lot of rehearsal for
tomorow's show. He took part in 13 of the 14
Democratic debates during the
primary season, missing only a minor-
league openipg event. For that, he was
taunted by Sen. Alan Cranston as the
"alleged, absent and temporary front-
runner."
On the short end of the odds with the
election only a month away, Mondale
needs not only to demonstrate that he
has a better graspv of the issues than
Reagan, but also that he is ready to lead
on those issues.
IT ONLY seems as if presidential
debates have been around since can-
didates wore powdered wigs. They
date, however, back only to 1960 when
Republican Richard Nixon, trailing in
the opinion polls, reluctantly agreed to
debate Democrat John Kennedy.
Nixon didn't intend it that way, but
that started another mini-trend in
which the debater who is in office lost*
in the November election to the debater
who is not. It also implanted the notion,
unproven, that winning debates boosts
the candidate's chances for election
and that a gaffe can blow a lot of votes
away.
Nixon was vice president when he
squared off with Kennedy but Kennedy
was elected president that year. In the
next set of presidential debates, in 1976,
Gerald Ford was president and Jimmy
Carter, the challenger who went on to'
the White House. In 1980, it was incum-

bent Carter against office-seeker
Ronald Reagan.
THAT, IN a nutshell, is the concise
history of presidential debates. The
Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas
debates of 1858Were for the U.S. Senate
seat held by Douglas, not for their
presidential contest two years later.
Lincoln lost the Senate race, but the
debates made him a national figure.
As they will be held tomorrow, with re-
porters asking questions to be answered by
each candidate, the debates - under
sponsorship for the third consecutive
time by the League of Women Voters -
aren't debates in the structured way
that high schoolers do it.
Debate purists liken what we're get-
ting to expanded press conferences
wherein each speaker delivers his'
message no matter what the question.
A TRUE debate would have a can-
didates punch and jab each other ver-
bally, with no journalistic inter-
mediaries, but that isn't the kind of
combat Reagan wanted.
From the politicans' view, there are
only two firm axioms on presidential
debates. First, nobody gets into one
unless he can't get out of it - Reagan -
or really needs it to win - Mondale.
Second, someone always gets hurt.
In 1960, Nixon was considered a
master of debate and television and he
readily agreed to debate Kennedy, who
needed the exposure. After all, Nixon's
"Checkers" speech in 1952 had turned
dangerous accusations into'a political
victory and all America had ,cheered
his "kitchen debate" lecturing of Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow.
WHEN NIXON arrived in Chicago for
the Sept. 26 opening debate he was only
seven weeks out of Walter Reed
Hospital, where he had lain in traction
with an injured knee. Stepping from his
limousine outside the studio, he pain-
fully cracked the sore limb.
Between illness and campaigning he
had lost weight, color, energy. Deep
shadows circled his eyes; the collar of
his shirt hung loose. He shunned
theatrical makeup, permitting only a

coating of "beard stick" to mask a five-
o'clock shadow.
By stark visual contrast, Kennedy
was relaxed and poised with little to
lose and everything to gain from the
unprecedented exposure.
KENNEDY CAME on strong, at-
tacking the Eisenhower administration
and pinning its faults on its heir. Like
Reagan today, he had the knack of
speaking through the cameras into
Americ a's living rooms. Nixon
debated, as if scoring points with foren-
sic judges instead of voters.
His brow began to streak with sweat.
The shadows deepened around his dark
eyes.
Kennedy, meanwhile, was cool and
crisp, in appearance and rhetoric.
BOTH MEN debated rather well, but
the visual difference was stark. People
who heard the debate on radio favored
Nixon or rated it a tossup. But the
television audience went to Kennedy
and in the next Gallup Poll, Kennedy
had a 49-46 lead.
"It is a devastating commentary on
the nature of television as a political
medium that what hurt me the most in
the first debate was not the substance of
the encounter between Kennedy and
me, but the disadvantageous contrast
in our physical appearances," Nixon
wrote in his memoirs. "After the
program ended, callers, including my
mother, wanted to know if anything was
wrong; because I did not look well."
There were three more debates, and
Nixon's performance improved. But
the damage was done. The election was
decided by little more than 100,000 votes
out of almost 70 million cast.
FOUR YEARS later, Lyndon Johnson
took one look at his lead over Barry
Goldwater and scoffed at the very idea
of a debate.
Nixon also wanted no more. In his
1968 comeback, he refused to debate
Hubert Humphrey. Four years later his
big lead over George McGovern only
confirmed his aversion.
But 1976 presented a difficult set of
circumstances. Ford was a non-elected

Reagan
president, laboring still under the
shadow of the scandal that had driven
Nixon from office and his~own pardon of
Nixon. Carter came out of the
Democratic convention about 30 points
ahead in the polls.
FORD TRAILED in the polls and
looked for a boost. Carter's lead was
dwindling, and he sought new momen-
tum and the chance to look presidential
despite his inexperience.
Ford's undoing came in the second
debate, when in answer to a panelist's
question, he declared "there is no
Soviet domination of Eastern Europe."
Clearly, Ford had misspoken. He had
meant that the United States would
never condone a subjugated Eastern
Europe.
THE GAFFE created an uproar.
Pollsters still argue over how many
votes it actually cost Ford, but it took a
week to straighten things out - a week
of defense and wheelspinning at a
critical stage of the campaign.
Carter beat Ford by 1.7 million votes
out of 80 million cast.
The League of Women Voters spon-
sored the 1976 debates and the
organization hoped the forum would
become a quadrennial institution. In-
stead, they quickly became a campaign
issue.
IN 1980, Carter citing the Iranian
hostage crisis, dodged debating Sen.
Edward Kennedy in the Democratic
primaries and it cost him nothing
politically. But after Reagan refused to
appear at a Republican candidate
debate in Iowa he lost the state to
George Bush.
Later Reagan stopped Bush by
" making him look like the villian who
wanted to ban the other candidates
* from a debate in Nashua, N.H.
Next, Reagan tried to lay the same
ambush for Carter by insisting that in-
dependent John Anderson be included
in the first general election debate in
Baltimore.
INCLUDING Anderson would have
granted him a status in the public eye
close to that of the major party
nominees. Since Anderson's following
was in large part liberal, he stood to
take more votes from Carter than
Reagan if he gained that credibility.
Carter stayed home.
Meanwhile, Carter was trailing
Reagan and he was insisting on a man-
to-man debate with the Republican
challenger. In their single debate, an
intense Carter was bested by a relaxed
Reagan, who at one point answered a
Carter gibe with a good natured "there
you go again."
Perhaps the most lasting impression
of that debate was a question posed by
Reagan. "Ask yourself," he told an
audience estimated at 120 million
people, "are you better off than you
were four years ago."
The nation's voters gave a resoun-
ding "no" in November, handing
Reagan a landslide of 43-9 million
popular votes to Carter's 35.5 million.

The Michigan Daily - Saturday, October 6, 1984 - Page 3

Doily Photo by CAROL L. FRANCAVILLA
Dental studentsMaura Fichter works on a patient's teeth at the University's
School of Dentistry clinic.
'U dentaleclinice
offers discount, care

No detail too small for candidates

WASHINGTON (AP) - Aides to
President Reagan and Walter Mondale
intent on keeping each other from any
P unfair advantage in Sunday's debate,
have been conducting behind-the-
scenes negotiations for weeks on such
issues as how to arrange the stage and
what color the backdrop should be.
Just two days before the confron-
tation before an estimated television
audience of 75 million, most of the
issues had been settled, except for an
announcement of which four reporters
would pose questions.
BY midafternoon, both sides had
agreed on three of the four panelists,
according to a Mondale aide, but no
names had been announced.:

During the 90-minute session, which
begins at 9 p.m. EDT, Reagan and his
Democrat challenger will field
questions from behind identical
podiums supplied by the White House.
Reagan's will not bear the presidential
seal, but will likely include an am-
plification device because of his
hearing difficulty.
The president won his request for a
blue curtain as a backdrop on the stage
at the Kentucky Center for the Arts.
Mondale had wanted black.
THROUGHOUT the debate, they will
stand eight feet apart, facing the
audience, with the bank of reporters on
stage left facing them and the
moderator, Barbara Walters, on stage

right.
"Since the vast majority of people
are going to be watching on television,
you always do it with an eye to making
sure your candidate looks as good as
possible," said a White House aide, who
commented only on condition he not be
identified.
Perhaps as much attention has been
paid to such technical details as
lighting and set designs as to the actual
negotiations over debate terms. That's
because both sides recall that Richard
Nixon, perspiring and bearing deep cir-
cles under his eyes, provided a stark,
unappealing visual contrast with a cool,
crisp John Kennedy during their
historic 1960 debate.

By MARY BETH DOYLE
After three weekends of opening
beer bottles with your teeth, you think
you may need a little dental work. But
your bank account is dwindling, so
where can you go?
If you don't mind having students
work on your molars, the clinic at the
University's School of Dentistry could
be just the place for that discount den-
tal work:
STAFFED with dental students who
have completed at least two years of
their schooling, the clinic has been
called "one of the finest in the coun-
try" by John Nolan of the Michigan
Dental Association.
Because students do the work, pric-
es are substantially lower than
similar care from a private dentist.
Maura Fichter, a third' year dental
student working at the clinic says the
cost of a simple filling can be over $32
at a normal dentist while a filling at
the Unviersity clinic costs between
$10 and $15. Patients are only charged
for the material, Fichter said.
There are some important differen-
ces between the clinic and a regular
dentist though.
"MAKE SURE you have plenty of
time," Fichter said. The clinic
suggests a patient set aside a full half
day for the treatment.
The reason for the extra time in-
volved in the treatment is that dental
school faculty supervise the work at
every step to insure proper care, said
dental student Greg Apsey.
Every procedure has checkpoints
where the instructors' inspect a

students work. If any mistakes are
found, the student must correct them
before continuing the treatment.
THIS YEAR dental student Geri
Pikus said the faculty is "extremely
thorough" at the checkpoints.
Because of this close scrutiny, a
filling can, take three hours to com-
plete, Fitcher said.
Many of the patients at the clinic
come from outside the Ann Arbor
area. Joe Mack drives down from
Gaylord, Michigan for his dental
work. Mack said he likes the fact that
the students are "working for
marks."
"IT SEEMS as though once their
away from school, they're just not as
thorough,"he said.
E.L. Mitchell, a Howell resident,
said "the service here is better than a
private dentist."
But even with the faculty super-
vision, many people prefer to have
their dental work performed by
someone with more experience. For
those cautious individuals, the school
has a clinic staffed by dental school
faculty. The prices are more expen-
sive, though, reflecting the professors
added experience.
To become a patient at the clinic, a
person must first be screened by den-
tal school faculty member who
decides what kind of treatment is
needed. Currently, there is an eight
week wait for the screening.
If eight weeks is too long for you to
put up with a toothache, the school
also has an emergency clinic where
patients carf walk-in off the street.

Soviets soften medium-range weapon stance

MOSCOW (AP) - In public
discussion about renewing formal
dialogue with the United States, the
Soviet Union has been 'giving less
!prominence to the deadlock over
medium-range missiles in Europe that
once dominated U.S.-Soviet debates.
The basic Kremlin stand on the issue
has not changed. But some Western
diplomats say the Soviets may be sen-
ding a signal that Euromissiles are not
an immediate priority item in their list
of "concrete steps" the United States
could take toward improving relations.
THE ISSUE was omitted from
several major speeches by Kremlin
Pleaders in the past month, including
President Kons-tantin Chernenko's
comments in the Communist Party
organ Pravda and a speech in Bulgaria
by Politburo member Mikhail Gor-
bachev.
The medium-range weapons dispute
also was not mentioned in Foreign
Minister Andrei Gromyko's assessment
of his meeting with President Reagan

on Sept. 28.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry press
spokesman Vladimir Lomeiko made no
reference to Euromissiles in talking
about the kind of "concrete move" the
Kremlin would like to see from the
United States.
INSTEAD, he stressed Soviet
proposals for a ban on space weapons
and for a mutual agreeemnt not to use
nuclear weapons first.
Those proposals also were em-
phasized Thursday night in a Politburo
statement that included an unusually
long and detailed declaration on disar-
mament and a firm endorsement by the
leadership of Gromyko's meeting with
Reagan and his comments afterward.
A senior Western diplomat, who said
he believed the statement reflected an
effort to show unity on foreign policy,
noted that it focused on "the United
States showing signs of changing its
view" and thus indicated the Soviets
"are ready to go a certain way" toward
improving relations.

The omissions are not believed to
signal any change in the fundamental
Soviet refusal to resume the Geneva
talks on reducing medium-range
weapons in Europe while NATO is
deploying such missiles.
In fact, after Chernenko's statements
appeared in Pravda on Sept. 3, Lomeiko
told a press briefing that Chernenko's
omission of the Euromissiles issue did

not mean the Kremlin had dropped its
insistence that the NATO weapons be
withdrawn.
Gromyko also raised the issue in his
speech to the U.N. General Assembly
last week, and a Soviet official said in a
private discussion this week that the
Kremlin wants "a moratorium" on the
NATO deployment of Pershing 2 and
cruise missiles.,


NOTES

-HAPPENINGS-
Highlight
The Musical Society plays Rossini's "La Cenerentola" at 8 p.m. in the
Power Center.
Films
Mediatrics - The Blues Brothers, 7 & 9 p.m., MLB 4.
AAFC/Cinema 2/Cinema Guild - Fanny and Alexander, 4:30 & 8 p.m.,
MLB 3.
Cinema 2 - Wuthering Heights, 7 p.m., Pride and Prejudice, 9 p.m.,
Angell Aud. A.
Alt. Act. -The Adventures of Robin Hood, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., Nat Sci.
Cinema Guild - My Dinner with Andre, 7 & 9:05 p.m., Lorch Hall.
Performances
The Ark - Stephanie Ozer and Kathy Moore, 8 p.m., 637 S. Main St.
The Performance Network - American Buffalo, 8 p.m., the Performance

Associated Press
A New Haven policeman arrests a striking member of Yale University's clerical and technical employees' union during
a demonstration outside the house of Yale President Giamatti.
Yale strike slows campus mal

Polite thief
A 33 year-old handicapped man was
robbed of less than $25 Thursday after-
noon while he was entering the Detroit
Edison Building at 425 S. Main St. to
pay his electric bill, police said yester-"
day.
The robber held the door open for the
handicapped man and then stole his
wallet, police said.
House damaged
An intruder caused minor damage to
a house on the 300 block of S. Division
St. Wednesday afternoon. The intruder
entered the home through a basement
window and attempted to light a fire on
a carpeted stairway, police said.
- Georgea Kovanis
Stanley H. Kaplan
The Smart
MOVE!


(Continuedfrom Page1)
said John Wilhelm, the union's chief
negotiator and . New England vice
president of the Hotel and Restaurant
Employees Union, AFL-CIO.
THE YALE workers are one of the
largest groups of office workers to
organize at a private university. Their
union, Local 34 of the Federation of

been able to maintain steady, although
not large, annual pay increases for
staff. And this has diffused more recent
efforts to unionize clerical workers.
YALE OFFICIALS say they
recognized four years ago that the
school's clerical and technical salaries
were lower than others in the area. Sin-

they ignored police orders to end a
peaceful demonstration at the home of
Yale President A. Bartless Giamatti.
Some 700 workers and their spouses
marched silently from the city green to
Giamatti's home.
THE STRIKERS' resolve shows that
working women are a force to be