Bush, Gore campaigns extend debate talks; no deal on format

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A day-long meeting of top campaign aides ended Friday evening without a deal on how to organize the three planned presidential debates between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.

Gore campaign chief William Daley and Bush's campaign manager, Don Evans, said talks would resume Saturday in Washington over how the debates the two camps agreed to Thursday would be conducted.

"We did make great progress today. We will be back in the morning," Evans said.

In talks Thursday, representatives of the major party candidates agreed to meet in the three debates originally proposed by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. The encounters will be held October 3, in Boston; October 11, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and October 17, in St. Louis.

In addition, vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney and Joseph Lieberman will debate October 5 in Danville, Kentucky. All the 90-minute sessions are tentatively scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Eastern time and will be televised on all broadcast networks.

VIDEO CNN's Jeanne Meserve on how the presidential debate formats are being hammered out Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

The campaigns still have to agree on a format for the debates. Daley said he expected to reach an agreement in Friday's session, but points of contention remained between the two camps. He would not disclose what they were.

"We've asked the lawyers to work overnight to draft some documents, and we'll be back in the morning," Daley said.

In the ongoing "debate on the debates," Bush had spent a week touting an alternative plan to the proposed three commission debates. He proposed debating in just one of the debate commission venues, in St. Louis, and facing Gore on two television talk shows -- NBC's "Meet the Press" and CNN's "Larry King Live." Gore had long supported the commission's debate proposal, and members of his campaign accused Bush of "ducking" debates with his plan.

But when Gore insisted on holding all three formal debates before discussing any other formats, Bush pointed to several occasions where Gore had offered to debate Bush "anytime, anywhere."

He eventually backed off the plan, and Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes cast Thursday's agreement as a victory for the GOP nominee.

Daley, left, and Evans speak with reporters

"Unlike Vice President Gore, Gov. Bush says what he means and means what he says," Hughes said. "He has said all along, for more than a month now, he wants three debates: Today our campaign has agreed with the Gore campaign to have three debates."

Earlier Friday, Daley said there will likely be a mixture of three different debate formats: a presidential style format, a town-hall format, and the "talk-show sort of format." And a Democratic National Committee official told CNN the debate commission has submitted three names as possible moderators, but refused to elaborate.

Most observers say the more formal style of debate might favor Gore, while the less-formal model could give Bush an advantage.

The Bush campaign, meanwhile, said debate campaign materials mailed anonymously to a top Gore aide appeared authentic. Former Rep. Tom Downey, who received the material Wednesday, turned the package over to the FBI and has stepped aside from any role in the debates.

Hughes said the package contained an "authentic tape" showing a mock debate between Bush and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire. That practice session took place at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"The only people who would have had authorized access to that tape were the most senior members of our campaign, and so it appears that whoever sent that tape to the Gore campaign obtained it in some sort of unethical way," Hughes said.