There is an interesting story in today's issue of the Hill about John Kerry's tactics to win the debates--even if he doesn't actually win them. Hans Nichols writes in "Dem lawmakers primed for big post-debate spin" that Kerry is hoping to use a cadre of surrogates to first lower the expectations then trumpet his performance in the debate, an attempt to avoid a major mistake by Al Gore. Nichols writes:

The Kerry campaign has enlisted congressional Democrats to play down expectations of the challenger’s performance in the first presidential debate this Thursday, and then flood the airwaves with jubilant analysis that he has won it.

The Democratic lawmakers will seek to influence media analysis by drumming campaign talking points into the press’s “echo chamber” before and after the Florida showdown. Democrats want to avoid the mistakes they say 2000 nominee Al Gore made by ceding both pre-debate expectations and the post-debate conversation to Republicans, allowing aggressive GOP lawmakers and sympathetic pundits to set the tone for the debate analysis.

Although it would clearly have been better had this story not reached the media, it's nonetheless good to see that the Kerry folks know what they're doing with the debates. I cannot overstate the importance of expectations in debates, and if current polling holds true, the populace expects the President to win the debates, so it appears as though Kerry has won round one of the debates. We'll have to wait until Thursday night for round II...