Election 2004

CNN softens debate question

WASHINGTON - The student who asked the most ridiculed question at CNN's "Rock the Vote" debate last week - "Macs or PCs?" - says it wasn't her idea.

Alexandra Trustman said a CNN producer called her on the morning of the Boston forum and suggested she ask about the Democratic presidential candidates' computer preferences. Puzzled by the request, she writes in Brown University's Daily Herald, she drafted a more complicated question about how the candidates would use technology.

But in Boston, Trustman said, she was handed a note card with the digital-age equivalent of the boxers-or-briefs choice put to Bill Clinton. She wrote that she told the producer "I didn't see the question's relevance," but that he rejected her proposed query "because it wasn't light-hearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

CNN spokesman Matthew Furman said: "In an attempt to encourage a lighthearted moment in this debate, a CNN producer working with Ms. Trustman clearly went too far. CNN regrets the producer's actions."

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Breaking with most of his Democratic rivals, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said Tuesday he favors amending the Constitution to ban flag burning.

Lawmakers have debated such an amendment almost annually since 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled that destroying the American flag amounted to protected free speech.

Speaking at an American Legion hall on Veterans Day, Clark said he agrees with the amendment, although he cautioned true patriotism involves more than respecting symbols.

"I'm in favor of the American flag amendment, but as I travel around the country, what I see is a new spirit of patriotism, and it goes a long way beyond the American flag," he said.

Among Democratic presidential hopefuls in Congress, Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards have opposed the amendment. Reps. Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich have supported it.

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's press secretary and deputy finance director quit Tuesday.

Robert Gibbs, chief spokesman for the Massachusetts lawmaker, and deputy finance director Carl Chidlow quit in reaction to Sunday's firing of campaign manager Jim Jordan.

Gibbs will be replaced by Stephanie Cutter, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Convention. Jordan was replaced by Mary Beth Cahill, Sen. Edward Kennedy's chief of staff.

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