THE PREGAME SCORE CARD : IN TONIGHT'S DEBATE, WATCH FOR VERBAL PARRIES AND THRUSTS BEARING NAMES LIKE `THE PARDON PLEDGE,' `THE WONK CROUCH,' THE `TAX-AND- SPEND LIBERAL' CRUSHER.

Byline: William Safire 

THE most powerful person in the world this week is Jim Lehrer, moderator of tonight's first presidential debate.

After each debater's two-minute opening statement, the novelist (next: ``White Widow'') will choose the questions to be put to Bob Dole and Bill Clinton. A 90-second answer will be followed by a 60-second rebuttal and a 30-second surrebuttal.

I have not spoken to Lehrer about this, but here are a few of the questions that both sides expect to be asked, with a handy-dandy, nonpartisan guide to viewers about how to judge the winner.

Expected by Dole: How can you provide a 15 percent tax cut without busting the budget?

See if Dole goes into a policy-wonk crouch, with defensive details and seeming to pander to voters' greed, or if he seizes the chance to show the basic difference in approaches to governing.

See if Clinton's response is defensive, directed to his competing tax cut, or if he prefers to take credit for lowered deficits. Does Clinton knock Dole off balance with an unexpected claim - rather than let Dole close out the round with a ``tax-and-spend liberal'' crusher?

Expected by Clinton: Aren't you concerned that your veto of the bill to ban the partial-birth procedure places you outside the mainstream on the abortion issue?

See if Clinton sounds defensive by making the slippery-slope argument, or is able to widen the gender gap by wrapping Dole around Gingrich and charge Republicans with being against women on everything from family leave to affirmative action. Does Dole then take that bait or zero in on ``abortion extremism''?

Expected by Dole: Can any 73-year-old man be expected to withstand the stresses of the modern presidency?

Will he say how he has been running flat out for eight months and feels fine, then challenge Clinton to release health records? Will Clinton fall for that, or brush it off and grab the high graciousness ground by hoping to be as peppy as Dole when he's in his mid-70s? Can Dole close the round with a Reaganesque quip, differentiating between physical activity and policy action?

Expected by Clinton: Will you grant the House's request that you pledge not to use your power to pardon people accused or convicted of crimes who might otherwise incriminate you?

Tens of millions of undecideds may base their decision on a Clinton refusal to ``take the pardon pledge,'' enabling Dole to exploit the distrust issue.

But for Clinton to disappoint jailbirds and aides expecting pardons might break the dam against Whitewater prosecution; does Clinton find a way to wriggle out? Does Dole make full use of his most crucial rebuttal, expressing anger at a plain cover-up, or will he not want to come across as an old meanie? Will Clinton blow his stack in surrebuttal, or not have to?

That's likely to be the newsmaker of the night, on which viewers can judge whether Clinton acts crooked or honest, whether Dole seems harsh or is too careful not to be.

Expected by both sides to be directed at either: a question on crime and drugs.

Will Clinton be able to bury Dole in statistics on declines in crime while excoriating him for opposing the ``100,000 cops on the beat''? Or will Dole be able to focus on the doubling of teen-age drug use during Clinton's term, demanding that Clinton stop using ``executive privilege'' to hide an FBI memo embarrassing the White House on drugs?

Both sides also expect a question about the Middle East. Will Dole criticize Clinton for blatantly intervening in the Israeli election, thereby losing U.S. leverage as mediator, and for recently refusing to veto a pro-Palestinian U.N. resolution? Or will Clinton score as the patient facilitator, charging Dole with interference with the peace process?

Will Clinton say ``extreme'' more than Dole says ``liberal''? Does Dole fade in the stretch, as the media expect, as Clinton begins to enjoy himself?

When Clinton bemoans the absence of Perot, will Dole have a riposte appealing to the Perot sliver? Does either commit a gaffe, like Dole's ``Brooklyn Dodgers'' or Clinton's ``drive-by pregnancies''? Who makes you feel safer?

Save this score card. Be your own pundit.

MEMO: William Safire writes for The New York Times.

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Photo: (1-2) SUNDAY READER

THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

(1--C olor) Bill Clinton: Will he float above Whitewater?

(2--Color) Bob Dole: Will he deliver a Reaganesque quip?

Associated Press