Debates squeezed dry.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Here's a question moderator Jim Lehrer should ask President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry in tonight's presidential debate: "Would you agree to rule changes that might bring back the 20 million Americans who have stopped watching these debates?"

About 46 million Americans watched the first presidential debate of the 2000 series, the same number as in 1996. In 1988 - the first debates to follow the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates - the initial debate attracted 62 million viewers. In 1984, when the debates were still under the control of the League of Women Voters, 65 million people tuned in to the first debate, and in 1980 the audience was 81 million.

The commission is the tame creature of the major parties' presidential campaigns. The campaigns are run by people who understand that debates offer more risks than opportunities - one slip, one sour note, one flat joke, and a candidate's performance will be remembered as a disaster.

The campaigns have done all they can to reduce the chance of a fatal error, and these efforts have been codified in a 33-page memorandum of understanding detailing the rules for the debate.

The rules spell out the parameters for questions and responses, of course, but also cover everything else - from camera work (no close-ups, no shots of the audience's reaction) to the distance between lecterns. The aim is to eliminate any potential for surprise.

The result is debates that seem predictable and scripted, with all spontaneity squeezed out. That's the way the candidates and their campaign organizations want them to be. Viewers, not surprisingly, are staying away in droves.

A more conversational and free-form format, much like Lehrer conducts each night on his PBS news program, would reveal more about the candidates' reasoning, their improvisational skills and the coherence of their ideas.

It might even attract a larger audience of viewers, sometimes known as voters.