After viewing Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, 28 area students and others participated in general discussions and a debate of their own in which they critiqued and commended Al Gore and Jack Kemp.

The second meeting of DebateWatch '96 was held at Southeast Missouri State University's Dempster Hall. The group met for the first time during Sunday's presidential debates between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.

DebateWatch is a national organization that was formed to help learn how instrumental the debates are in helping voters gain a better understanding of candidates and the issues.

After the vice presidential debate, DebateWatch participants separated into a group of students and non-students who were randomly asked by phone to participate.

The groups spent about an hour after the debates talking about what they thought were the participants' strengths and weaknesses.

Dr. Thomas Harte, chairman of the university's speech and theater department and a coordinator of the local DebateWatch, said he thought the men were evenly matched.

"It was a good debate," Harte said. "Maybe more so than last Sunday's debate between the presidential candidates. Both men were very civil and intelligent."

He said they focused on the issues. Both showed knowledge while not getting nasty, a criticism not escaping last week's debate between Clinton and Dole, Harte said. He said that discussion was more in-depth with fewer questions and longer response times.

"In fact, I was wondering if a lot of Americans who watched, on both political sides, weren't wishing the tickets were reversed by the end of the debate," Harte said.

A tie wouldn't be bad news for the Clinton ticket, Harte said. "Even a draw would be a win for that ticket," he said.

Rhett Browning participated in the focus group as part of a class on political communications. While he thought the debate was close, he felt Kemp was the overall winner.

"I think Gore and Kemp were well-matched," Browning said. "Al Gore seemed to have improved his debate technique since 1992. I thought many of the questions regarding the inner cities favored Kemp since he used to be housing secretary."

George Russell, a non-student who participated, said he thought the debate went well for both sides but thought Gore won out.

"Kemp seemed flustered," he said. "He wasn't quite the schmoozer Gore was."

Mike Yaremko attended the meeting at the request of a friend. He did not think either candidate was the overall winner.

"The way the debates are, unless one candidate makes a bad mistake or is truly spectacular, there is no clear-cut winner," he said. "Both Kemp and Gore are skilled speakers because of their years in Congress, so both were fairly evenly matched."