Walter Mondale: Getting a Second Look

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Mondale's preparations for the showdown will differ little from the way he got ready for the first debate. Once again he will go through a series of mock debates with Michael Severn, president of Columbia University, playing the part of Reagan. He will then study the tapes to isolate the words, tones and gestures that seem most effective. On substance he plans to press Reagan hard on a variety of issues: responsibility for American deaths in terrorist bombings in Lebanon, allegedly excessive reliance on force rather than diplomacy in Central America, neglect of human rights.

Most of all, Mondale will hit at the dangers of the nuclear arms race and the Administration's inability to engage the Soviet Union in any sustained arms-control negotiations. Some Democratic strategists predict that Mondale will try subtly, or perhaps not so subtly, to suggest that Reagan is too detached and insensitive to the details of policy to deal capably with the issue. "Think of the red phone," says one Democrat, harking back to an ad that Mondale used effectively in the primary campaign against Gary Hart. "Think of an arms-control debate in the context of the age and competence issues." Such an approach, if Mondale should actually try it, would be extremely risky, since it could easily slip into the kind of personal attack on a popular President that Mondale successfully avoided in the Louisville debate.

Reagan's preparations will be quite different from last time, or so everybody in the White House vows-including Nancy Reagan. A White House official described the First Lady as "unhappy" with the way aides had rehearsed her husband for Louisville. This time the President will hold fewer and shorter mock debates with Office of Management and Budget Director David Stockman, who plays Mondale, and carry a thinner briefing book less crammed with facts. He will concentrate instead on articulating broad themes, at which he is usually a master. On Sunday he is likely to claim that he has rebuilt American military strength, increased respect for the U.S. abroad and prevented Communists from winning control of an inch of new territory during his Administration.

Why did the President so conspicuously fail to follow this thematic approach in the first debate? "We overscheduled him with preparations," confesses White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver. "We gave him no time to sit and think about what he wanted to say in his own words. We crammed the computer with material." Reagan's advisers are still arguing over who is to blame for this overcoaching. One Reagan associate points a finger at White House Aide and Chief Debate Coach Richard Darman. Says this adviser: "The whole attitude of Darman was to make sure that the President didn't screw up." Other aides insist that nearly everyone involved was equally at fault for putting too much stress on avoiding factual gaffes, and for that matter, the President was overly eager to rebut Mondale point by point and prove himself a master of detail.