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ASU readies for presidential debate

The irony is just too rich. For seven long months now, President Bush and John Kerry have bitterly attacked each other over the war in Iraq. Tonight, they debate for the third and final time in an auditorium on the campus of Arizona State University that was intended originally for Baghdad. And if that wasn't enough, the focus of this last, high-stakes matchup is expected to be domestic policy. Three weeks before Election Day, the debate in Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium has once again flung Arizona into the national political spotlight. Never have the consequences been quite so profound. The prize in Tempe is momentum. Whose performance will put him in the best position as the campaign rumbles to a close? Who will best connect with voters? Who will appear strong and knowledgeable? Who will emerge the most likable? The most presidential? These questions are among the reasons the nation's eyes will be on an event in a building that has been described as looking like a giant pink wedding cake. Few are aware of its history. The circular structure was designed by the renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright as part of a cultural complex commissioned by King Faisal II of Iraq in the 1950s. The building now at the center of ASU's cultural life was conceived as an opera house for an island in the Tigris River. Wright envisioned the project as a homage to one of the world's great civilizations. "We are not there to slap them in the face," Wright wrote in a comment that resonates for very different reasons today, "but to do honor to them." Plans for the complex died when Faisal was overthrown in 1958. Wright then recycled the concept for ASU. It was completed in 1964 and named for a former ASU president. Wright never saw it. He died in 1959. "What goes around comes around," Gov. Janet Napolitano said when told Tuesday of the auditorium's ties to Iraq. Today, though, it is not the building but the verbal jousting that will take place inside it that commands attention. And it is the buzz of international media attention and nonstop activity that has been swirling around outside it for the past week that is the talk of Tempe. "It makes you feel close to the political world," said Casey Sticht, a 21-year-old justice studies major from Tucson. That world is going to get a lot closer in a few hours. Bush and Kerry are expected to walk through the auditorium this morning to get a feel for the venue. Both candidates will also attend post-debate rallies. All the major cable news networks are broadcasting from ASU's campus. On Tuesday, CNN's makeshift outdoor studio attracted Napolitano and her 2002 gubernatorial rival, Matt Salmon. Both were interviewed by anchorwoman Judy Woodruff. Or at least Woodruff tried to interview them. A throng of loud, curious students made it difficult. "I couldn't hear myself think," Salmon said. Today, it could be the heat that poses a problem for some of the 1,000 journalists covering the debate. They are working from a giant tent outside the auditorium. The loud hum from air conditioners made it difficult to hear the 48 television sets, so the university will shut off the cooling system this afternoon at 5:30 p.m., a half hour before the debate begins. "It'll stay cool for a while," said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, ASU's executive director for public events. For some ASU students, the debate has provided a good reason to party and talk politics. In the interests of promoting the latter, the university has erected a "speakers' corner" not far from the auditorium, complete with stage and microphones. Would-be politicos are being allowed to use the stage to try out their own stump speeches. Bush tried out his on Tuesday in Paradise Valley, where he attended a fund-raiser at the Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain resort. It raised $2.5 million for GOP candidates. The audience of approximately 400 included Sen. John McCain, former Gov. Fife Symington and Tucson auto dealer Jim Click, who helped organize the event. "I want to thank my friend Jim Click," Bush said. "I appreciate his leadership. Several people came through the line and said, 'I'm Click's friend.' I said 'Well, I'm sorry.' But thanks for coming." Kerry heads into tonight's contest buoyed by strong performances in the Miami and St. Louis debates. Recent polls also are increasingly kind to the Democratic challenger, showing him within striking distance of the president - even in usually Republican Arizona. A new statewide survey by the Social Research Laboratory at Northern Arizona University found that 49 percent of likely state voters back Bush, while 44 percent support Kerry. The closeness of the numbers means Arizona once again is a "battleground state," said pollster Fred Solop. Among the 401 voters questioned, Solop said 92 percent either watched or listened to all or part of the previous debates, and 59 percent thought Kerry did better than Bush. He said interest apparently has not waned, with 90 percent saying they intend to watch or listen to tonight's debate. Noting similar trends in multiple national polls, Kerry campaign officials on Tuesday sought to downplay the importance for him. "The pressure is obviously on the president to salvage one debate victory out of three," Joe Lockhart, a former Clinton press secretary now working for Kerry, said in a conference call with reporters. This assessment was shared by McCain. Speaking at the Paradise Valley fund-raiser, McCain said the president "didn't do as well as we wanted in the first debate."