IS IT theatre or is it political debate? More than 90 million Americans Will watch Bill Clinton and Bob Dole perform live tomorrow night, with the White House as the glittering prize.
Or is it? Some 65 per cent of voters in next month's presidential election say they have their minds made up. But the 30 per cent who say that the debates will influence their choice could decide the election.
Hence the hype and the tension for the candidates, who are rehearsing for the 90-minute encounter like gladiators getting ready for the Roman arena. Appearances will be as important as carefully rehearsed answers about the economy, crime, education, health and abortion.
The media, meanwhile, are digging out the examples of how previous would-be presidents blew it on the night.
A badly shaven, sweating Richard Nixon lost a vital debate with handsome, tanned Jack Kennedy in 1960, according to viewers. But pundits who were listening on radio thought Nixon had won.
Jimmy Carter could spew out statistics which Ronald Reagan did not even try to remember. But Reagan is still remembered for the put-down line: "There you go again."
Michael Dukakis, who opposed the death penalty, killed himself off in the 1988 debate with George Bush when he was asked whether he would want a criminal who raped and murdered his wife executed. Showing no passion or emotion, he just said "No."
But others believe that more damaging was the image of the rivals shaking hands after the debate, with Bush towering six inches over Dukakis.
But being small and ugly did not stop Ross Perot getting a bounce in 1992 from debating with Clinton and Bush. Perot shot from 11 to 17 per cent in the polls after the debates and won 19 per cent of the vote in the actual election. That is why he is so sore at being kept out of the debates this time because the Presidential Debate Commission has ruled that he has no "realistic" chance of winning.
Bush was doing all right in these debates until in the last one he began looking at his watch. Wrong message.
Bob Dole says this won't happen to him because he doesn't wear a watch. But Dole has had an earlier bad experience, according to the pundits, with TV debates, when he faced Walter Mondale in a vice-presidential contest in 1976.
An outburst by Dole against the "Democrat wars" the US had been dragged into this century is said to have damaged him greatly by showing up his so-called mean streak" lurking below the surface. Later Dole quipped: "I was supposed to go for tide jugular. And I did - my own."
"Smile more," Dole's advisers are telling him. He is rehearsing with a former actor now a senator, Fred Thompson, playing the part of President Clinton, complete with realistic nasal twang. Clinton has former senator, George Mitchell, playing the part of Dole, as he takes some time off from chairing the Northern Ireland peace talks. Clinton is also being advised by a drama consultant.
While both candidates are going around with briefing books under their arms telling them how to answer every conceivable question such as how much eggs, cost, their aides are worried about the "character" pitfalls.
Will the infamous Clinton temper erupt when Whitewater and alleged sharp practice by his lawyer wife, Hillary, are raised? Or if Dole jeers at his record on drugs, inhaled or otherwise? Clinton is being tested with "provocative" questions as he golfs this weekend in the autumnal chill of a former resort for Sunday school teachers in upstate New York.
Dole likes the sun and is practising at his condominium in Florida how to keep his sarcastic wit under control and not appear "mean" or show his age. Reagan, incidentally, turned the age factor neatly in his favour in the 1984 debate when he told the younger Mondale that he wouldn't hold his "youth and inexperience against him.
Dole aides are reminding reporters that he is a genuinely witty person whose humour does not always come across in public. He has been able to joke about his fall from a faulty campaign platform, saying that before he hit the ground his mobile phone rang with a lawyer saying: "I think we've got a case here."
While Dole has 30 years of Senate cut and thrust behind him, most people (70 per cent) expect Clinton to win the two presidential debates against only 20 per cent for Dole. This helps Dole, as any better showing can be represented as a victory of sorts.
Clinton aides point out that their man lost valuable preparation time because of this week's White House summit. He is also "out of practice" because, unlike Dole, he did not have to debate in primary elections earlier this year.
But they are trying not to show over-confidence in a contest that pits a 50-year-old President in his prime against a 73-year-old opponent who is prone to verbal gaffes and likes to say things three times.
Dole says he'll turn up for the debate in Hartford, Connecticut, "If I can find it."
That's a joke.