Producer by Wendy Walker Page B

and these two
     men were extraordinarily powerful and influential.
    Aware of the opportunity as well as the obstacles, I contacted Ross Perot to see if he was interested. He was game, and we
     figured it would be a great night of television, an unprecedented experience for us. But when we made the announcement that
     we would host this debate, it exploded into an international news story. Larry and I both ended up on the covers of a load
     of global newspapers and we were part of the story, exactly what I had hoped to avoid. Speculation was rampant as to who would
     win and how we would know who won. Now that we were part of the story, how would we end up convincing everyone that we were
     nonpartisan? I quickly realized that the scrutiny of our show was about to escalate intensely. In order for that to work in
     our favor, I needed to do absolutely everything right. I had to fall back on my organizational skills as I started making
     lists and springing into action.
    First, I got permission from Tom Johnson, CNN president at the time, to extend our usual sixty minutes to ninety minutes.
    Check.
    Next, I called a meeting with the White House and with Ross Perot’s people.
    Check.
    We were all on the same page, so to speak, and on November 11, 1993, Gore and Perot arrived at the studio about a half hour
     before the show.
    Check.
    I assigned a different person to take care of each man and make them both comfortable in private rooms that were the exact
     same size and filled with the same number of sandwiches, drinks, and other snacks. They did a coin toss for the privilege
     of choosing the seat closer to or farther away from Larry. Al Gore won and chose the seat closer to Larry. But once they were
     ready to go into the studio, I was up against another obstacle. It seemed that while Ross Perot had arrived at the studio
     on his own, Al Gore had Bob Squier with him, a personal friend and political adviser, but I couldn’t allow him on the set.
    I recall some years back when I got onto the Reagan press plane in Santa Barbara in tears. I had been dating a notorious womanizer
     named Carter Eskew who had been Bob Squier’s business partner at the time. Carter had unceremoniously dumped me by cell phone
     just before the plane took off and I was devastated. One of our flight attendants, M.A., a friend of mine by then, whisked
     me into the lavatory on the plane to wash my face and help me stop crying. M.A. was so helpful, she actually pulled me down
     on her lap on top of the toilet seat cover to keep me safe during takeoff.
    The point here is that right before the NAFTA debate, CarterEskew, in his inimitable fashion, left his partner, Bob Squier, just as unceremoniously as he had left me, going off on his
     own. Now, Al Gore knew that Bob and I had an inside secret—we had both been dumped by Carter Eskew. When I went in to greet
     the Gores and Bob, Al said to us, “Now you two really have something in common.” Bob laughed so hard.
    Ross Perot took his seat on the set with Larry when there were only about five minutes left until showtime. Where was Al?
     It seemed he had made a quick pit stop and Bob stood outside the men’s room, waiting for him.
    “Bob,” I said, “you have to get him out here right now.” I was looking at my watch and getting nervous.
    The bathroom door opened and out came Al Gore looking extremely anxious. He seemed to be on edge about this debate and I hated
     to make him even more nervous by asking him to go out there alone. But I had to stop Bob from walking onto the set. “You can’t
     go into the studio with him,” I told Bob.
    Bob looked at me and realized I wasn’t kidding. He glanced over at Ross Perot, then he looked at Al, and I saw a smile break
     out on Bob’s face. He leaned in and whispered in Al’s ear, loud enough for me to hear, “Just remember one thing, Al,” he said.
     “Everything on your body is bigger than his.”
    Al broke into a huge belly laugh and walked onto