Clinton-Obama debate a hot ticket

Tickets to tomorrow's Democratic presidential debate at the National Constitution Center are so hot that NCC president Joe Torsella had to turn down his own mother.

"She really laid into me," he said. "I think I let her down. She told me she would give her right arm for tickets."

With the Pennsylvania primary one week away, Torsella has been overwhelmed with ticket requests, including one from "the sister of the cousin of a friend's podiatrist," he said, tongue firmly in cheek.

He cannot accommodate them. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama will face off in the center's tiny - Torsella prefers "intimate" - theater-in-the-round. It seats 350, with 25 seats lost behind the backdrop.

The last time Democrats debated here, Oct. 29, the venue was the 842-seat auditorium in Drexel's historic Main Building. NBC had to extend the stage 16 feet to accommodate the seven candidates.

ABC, to telecast Clinton-Obama live from 8 to 10 p.m., will add about 100 seats around the perimeter of the NCC's Kimmel Theater, said David Chalian, the network's political director.

Also, an NCC-record 800 reporters will set up in the center's Great Hall.

Usually ratings kryptonite, debate telecasts have generated record numbers this season. The NCC event is expected to draw more than 10 million viewers.

"I continue to marvel at the level of interest in this election," Chalian said. "We see it in debate ratings, registration statistics, polling. It reminds us how high the stakes are."

ABC will have a production team of 125 staffers, along with 12 cameras and several satellite trucks. Chalian would not estimate the cost.

According to Torsella, the NCC had to raise $300,000 for additional security and other services. "To put on an event like this," he said, "the preparation is like a mini-D-Day."

A few months ago, it looked as if Ben Franklin himself couldn't have lured the Democrats to Independence Mall.

In December, the NCC proposed a February debate to Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards. They were "close to a deal," Torsella said, but when Edwards quit the race Jan. 30, "that changed the calculus with the candidates, and we couldn't make it work."

"We were completely crestfallen," he said. "We thought, for sure, the parade had passed us by. No one imagined we would have a meaningful race by the time we got to Pennsylvania."

A week later, Torsella's troops regrouped and sent out new proposals to the Democrats and the networks. "We hate giving up," he said. "For a while, we felt pretty helpless, but we found our initiative again."

Taking no chances, Torsella enlisted Gov. Rendell and members of Philadelphia's congressional delegation to lobby the candidates.

The closer was Rep. Robert A. Brady, who happens to be an uncommitted superdelegate. In early March, he personally made calls to former President Bill Clinton and Obama, Torsella said.

ABC was an easier sell. The network has had a close relationship with the NCC since the center's inception.

Peter Jennings, who revered the Constitution so much that he kept a copy in his back pocket, hosted the NCC's preopening gala in July 2003. The center later established a journalism program in the name of Jennings, who died in August 2005.

The debate was announced March 14. Four days later, Obama delivered his speech on race at the NCC. Clinton and the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, both spoke at the center in 2006.

"It's very important to have debates here," Torsella said. "Especially this one, with so many new people getting engaged in the process. Building this place, the aspiration was to be a national town hall."

In a new wrinkle, ABC taped questions from several superdelegates "because they might be the ones who decide this election," said Charlie Gibson, co-moderator with colleague George Stephanopoulos.

There has been no decision on whether any will be included, Chalian said.

Tomorrow will be Gibson's third debate in this primary cycle. He anchored back-to-back events (six Republican candidates, followed by four Democrats) on Jan. 5 in Manchester, N.H.

Like Manchester's, this debate will not have strictly enforced time limits. "No bells, whistles or buzzers," Chalian said, "but we will have some guidelines, to put some structure into the conversation."

Also, if someone starts to filibuster, Gibson will jump in. That, he said, is not debatable.