THE DEBATES

On Sunday a nationwide television audience will see the first presidential debate of 1996 broadcast live from Hartford, Conn. beginning at 8 p.m. Debates played a huge role in the 1960 contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The next several races saw no such nationally televised fall debates scheduled. Since 1976, though, when President Gerald Ford faced off against candidate Jimmy Carter, such debates have been a staple of the fall presidential campaign every four years.

Every voting American should be tuned in for and paying close attention to these debates. It is a unique opportunity for voters to size up the two candidates as they go at it one-on-one in time segments longer than the 30-second sound bites that dominate so much of modern campaigns.

Reform candidate Ross Perot will be standing (figuratively, at least) on the sidelines, screaming and whining at his having been excluded from the process. He has filed suit to force his entry into the debates. The mercurial Perot has no valid complaint and no lawsuit worthy of a court's time. This year Perot was excluded from the debates by exactly the same panel following exactly the same process of decision by which he was admitted to them four years ago. Then, Perot a) actually led the candidates of the two major parties in some national polls, b) brought a signature issue (the national deficit) to the forefront, c) was spending tens of millions of dollars of his own money and d) led a genuine national uprising in the most serious third-party challenge since at least 1968, and possibly 1912. This year Perot the egomaniac has sputtered and faltered amid an ever-more ludicrous attempt to keep himself the major "player" he clearly was in 1992. But the bloom is off that rose: This year Perot's balanced-budget issue has been partially co-opted by both major parties, he languishes in single-digits and he wouldn't even debate his own opponent in the Reform Party nomination fight, former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm.

Let the debates begin.