BOSTON (AP) - Forty years after native son John F. Kennedy jousted with Richard M. Nixon in the nation's first televised presidential debate, Boston will host its first presidential debate.
Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George Bush on Thursday agreed to debate on prime-time television Oct. 3 from UMass-Boston, which shares its campus with the John F. Kennedy Library.
The announcement put an end to speculation that Bush would not debate in Boston because of the symbolism attached to Kennedy _ a Democratic icon whose performance in the first televised debate in 1960 helped secure a win against Nixon.
"This is a great day for UMass-Boston and the city of Boston," said Kennedy library spokesman Tom McNaught.
UMass-Boston had already spent $250,000 preparing for the debate when Bush balked at the campaign schedule proposed by a bipartisan commission.
UMass President William M. Bulger said it was appropriate that Boston host a debate because many presidents, from John Adams to Kennedy to George Bush, have roots in Massachusetts.
He called Boston "the birthplace of American political debate."
"Forty years ago, the Kennedy-Nixon debates captivated the nation and made presidential debates an integral part of American politics," Bulger said in a statement. "Let the debates begin where it all began."
The other presidential debates are scheduled for Oct. 11 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Oct. 17 in St. Louis. The vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Lieberman and Republican Dick Cheney, will debate Oct. 5 in Danville, Ky.
The first presidential debate was held in 1948, when New York Gov. Thomas Dewey squared off against former Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen in a Republican primary debate in Portland, Ore.
Ninety years earlier, former Republican Congressman Abraham Lincoln had faced Democratic U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas in a series of debates for the Senate that set the stage for Lincoln's later run for president.
On the Net: Commission on Presidential Debates: http://www.debates.org/pages/debhis.html