20 ways to win debates -- and voters

JOHN KERRY has finally gotten it right on Iraq. Just in time for Thursday's debate on foreign policy. Can he use Iraq to get back in race? Here's what I'll look for:

Likability. Would I want to spend cross-country bus trip sitting next to you? You can win debate but lose voters if they don't like you.

Be polite. Respect host, audience, and Bush. Don't interrupt. Be first to shake hands. Bush is always gracious in public.

Find your voice. Seemed like every debate in primaries, you were hoarse. Rest your voice before debate.

Avoid stuffiness: No sentence that begins "Ladies and gentlemen" should leave your lips.

On time. Repeatedly running over time limit makes debater look self-absorbed, disorganized, and windy.

Bright, not dark. Ralph Whitehead, author and lead political sherpa at University of Massachusetts, says voters usually prefer candidate who's bright to one who's dark. Optimism trumps outrage.

Attack Bush's defiance. United States badly needs international money and peacekeepers to secure Iraq. So what does defiant Bush do? Scolds UN.

Reframe it. Don't let Bush frame question as: "Was I right to topple Saddam?" Make it: "Is Iraq war worth the lives, money, and chaos?"

Highlight crumbling GOP support. Bush fantasizes about democracy and elections in Iraq. Angry GOP Senators Chuck Hagel of Iowa, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and John McCain of Arizona are blasting Bush's delusions about Iraq. Republican congressman Doug Bereuter of Nebraska ripped war as "dangerous, costly mess."

Call it "Bush's war." As coalition shrinks, Iraq is becoming Bush's war. Guardian newspaper says British are removing one-third of troops next month.

Take war to Bush. Make case against Bush's war. Dead: 1,054 US soldiers; 12,000 to 15,000 Iraqi citizens. US deaths since Bush declared "Bring them on": 834. Cost to US taxpayers: $137 billion. Number of WMD found: 0. Number of Muslim detainees at Guantanamo charged with terrorism: 0.

Have plan to fight terrorism. People support Iraq war because they think it'll make United States safer. If you criticize war without antiterror plan, you leave them feeling defenseless.

Prepare counter punches. You know Bush will say Saddam would still be in power if you were president. That you're serial flip-flopper. That you're Massachusetts liberal. Have rejoinders ready. Remember professional talker James Carville's great line for Vermont's Howard Dean? "If the number of African-Americans in your state is a measure of your commitment to civil rights, Trent Lott would be Martin Luther King."

Leave Guard and Vietnam alone. We're sick and tired of Dan Rather, what you did in Vietnam, and what Bush didn't do.

Clarity. Give understandable, structured answers. "I have three points. . . "

Would it kill you to quote Scripture? Don't look at me. Ask Bill Clinton.

Don't be defensive. Don't try to reconcile two different positions by saying, "It's perfectly consistent." Better to say, "I was deceived, just like the American people were." Or, "I was wrong, just like President Bush was on WMD."

Beware 60-minute zone. Debate guru Michael Sheehan coached Bill Clinton and many other Democrats. Sheehan says, in 90-minute debates, if mistake happens, it comes around 60-minute mark. Jack Kennedy line Dan Quayle tried in 1988 that Lloyd Bentsen shoved back into Quayle's face came at 61 minutes. So did Gerald Ford's blunder in 1976 that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe."

Respect this guy. Atlantic's James Fallows reviewed tapes of Bush debating Ann Richards in 1994 Texas governor's race. "The Bush on this tape was almost unrecognizable," he wrote. "This Bush was eloquent. He spoke quickly and easily. He rattled off complicated sentences and brought them to the right grammatical conclusions. He did not pause before forcing out big words or invent mangled new ones."

Have fun. "I was almost late. I had a helluva time finding a parking space for Teresa's yacht." In your closing, try something like writer S.N. Behrman said when he turned 75: "I've had just about all I can take of myself."

Dan Payne is a Boston-based Democratic media consultant who has worked in John Kerry's Senate campaigns in the past but is not affiliated with his presidential campaign. He does presidential campaign analysis for NPR, and his column appears regularly in the Globe.