With the race for the presidency in a dead heat, candidates launched a new round of attacks this week in preparation for the second of three debates.

The debate will be Friday in St. Louis.

In hopes of reversing his slipping rankings after what was called “a poor showing at the debate,” President Bush fiercely criticized Democratic challenger John Kerry as not possessing the ability to effectively lead a nation at war.

On Thursday, Kerry fired back at the president. In a press conference, Kerry said that if the situation in Iraq does not improve, it may end up like Lebanon in the 1980s.

Despite the new ferocity of the attacks, those few undecided voters may wait until after the debates to decide who they will vote for.

Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, said by this point, most voters have made up their minds as to whom they are going to vote for. At the debate watch the center held on campus for the Sept. 30 debate, only five people who showed up were undecided voters, Bystrom said.

“If you’re an undecided voter, you need to watch at least two debates [to decide],” she said.

Friday’s debate will be in a town hall format, where the candidates answer questions posed by the audience, and will be moderated by ABC’s Charles Gibson, which could work toward Bush’s favor as it did in 2000, Bystrom said.

ISU College Republicans president Louis Kishkunas said Bush’s appearance Monday in Clive served as a warm-up for the president. Kishkunas said the town hall format works well for Bush since he’s able to connect better with an audience than in a traditional debate format.

Gabe Whitaker, ISU Democrats president, said it is going to be hard for Bush to look strong with his past record on the economy and the war on terror.

Whitaker said the last debate went to Kerry, despite the fact that it was focused on Bush’s strong suit of foreign policy, and the next ones will focus more on domestic policy, Kerry’s area of emphasis.

He said he did not believe the president would be able to measure up.

James McCormick, professor and chairman of political science, said he believed the debate would focus more on domestic issues rather than foreign policy. New developments in the war on terror and in dealing with Iraq will probably be in the debate but won’t be the focus, McCormick said.

Upcoming events such as national elections in Afghanistan could help bolster the president’s case that the war on terror is working, he said. Recent comments by L. Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, concerning the lack of troops in Iraq would help Kerry’s case, he said, as well as a new report from the CIA that revealed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.

“On the face of it, you would expect this would help Kerry,” McCormick said. “But this has been ruminated before.”

Common issues people have been interested in, Bystrom said, include jobs, education and the possibility that the draft will be reinstated.

“They’re worried about the reinstatement of the draft,” she said. “There’s still some uneasiness there.”

— The Associated Press

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