The Debate

About 30 minutes before the debate started, several people from the Commission on Presidential Debates came on stage to speak about the debate, audience decorum, etc. Then several representatives from the university spoke briefly. Then, moderator Jim Lehrer came on stage.

Jim Lehrer was very interesting to watch, because here you were looking at a real person, not a collection of pixels on TV. And he also was not acting in his traditional role of TV news anchor, but instead as the person in charge of the debate. He spoke about what would happen, when it would happen and what the audience's role would be (essentially the audience was told to remain completely silent during the debate -- no applause, hooting, booing, etc.). He kidded around a little -- this was a Jim Lehrer I had never seen before, and it set the tone for the rest of the evening because he made everyone feel welcome and a part of the event. He was in complete command and seemed to really enjoy the role.

© Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images George W. Bush, Jim Lehrer and Al Gore during the 2000 presidential debates.

Laura Bush came out and took her seat to a standing ovation. Then Tipper Gore and her family came out and took their seats to a standing ovation. Then both the candidates came out and took their seats to a standing ovation, and the debate began.

There were two things about "being at" the debate that were different from watching it on TV:

• The two candidates become "people" rather than "characters" when you see them in person. Television has a way of mechanizing things, and then media interpretation and spin have a way of skewing things. Here at the debate, you can see that these are simply two people -- obviously important for their positions, but still just people. They make mistakes, drink water, pause to think and so on -- just like you and me.

• You can sense the audience's reaction to things, and it is different from when you are watching at home. This is the same effect you get when you watch a movie in a theater as opposed to on TV. Even though the audience was asked to be silent (and did a good job, in fact, of maintaining silence), you could still sense reactions to different points from the group of people in the auditorium. The audience broke its silence on three occasions to laugh, and even to clap quickly when Jim Lehrer made a comment about Gore's ads. In all of these cases, the participants in the debate had broken through, become completely human and had connected with the audience as a group. That's much harder to do on TV.

After the debates, the candidates went to rallies with their supporters.