Bush Shifts on Debates, Seeks 4 : Campaign: Clinton says he prefers the schedule that the White House has rejected. President’s plan for Sunday face-offs could change the dynamics of the race.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. —  After weeks of dodging proposals for face-to-face encounters, President Bush on Tuesday suddenly challenged Democratic presidential opponent Bill Clinton to debate “every Sunday evening” from Oct. 11 to Election Day.

Caught off guard, Clinton said he preferred to keep to the schedule proposed by an independent commission--which called for the two candidates to face off this Sunday in San Diego and again Oct. 15 in Richmond, Va.--before discussing additional confrontations.

Shortly before his surprise proposal, Bush had rejected the two pending commission-sponsored debates, as he had two earlier dates the group had set for him to meet with the Democratic nominee. Bush’s action caused the University of San Diego, which was to host Sunday’s debate, to officially cancel it.

Bush’s challenge for four debates--coming in the wake of negative publicity over his refusal to accept the debate proposals of a bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates--was viewed by many analysts as his boldest attempt to date to seize the initiative in a campaign that has seen him frozen in most public opinion polls at 9 to 15 percentage points behind Clinton.

If it comes to pass, Bush’s plan could effectively change the dynamics of the presidential race by turning the final month into a debate series of his choosing.

The new debate proposal came as Ross Perot continued to study the possibility of joining the race as a third candidate.

According to a spokesman for the Texan, a toll-free telephone line set up to hear from those supporting a Perot candidacy logged 1.5 million calls just a few hours after he appeared Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” But Perot aides acknowledged that some called to recommend that he not run and were frustrated when a recording informed them that they would be tallied as Perot supporters.

Also Tuesday, Orson Swindle, the head of Perot’s grass-roots volunteer network, confirmed reports that a wave of pro-Perot television ads already has been prepared for use should he enter the race.

Bush unveiled his debate proposal during an appearance at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, a small community near the Kentucky border. “If Gov. Clinton is serious about debating, he will accept this challenge and he will instruct his campaign officials to meet promptly with my campaign officials to work out the details directly between the parties,” Bush said.

Bush, in his proposal, agreed to compromise on the format question that had caused him to reject the commission’s proposed debates. Under Bush’s offer, two of the debates would feature a single moderator--the commission plan to which he had objected. The two other debates would involve a panel of journalists asking questions--the format the Bush campaign has been pushing.

Most experts argue that the single moderator would encourage more direct confrontation between the candidates. Bush had said he preferred the panel of questioners because that was the format that had been used in all presidential debates since 1976.

Bush also said that if Perot enters the race--which could happen later this week--he would be welcome to join the debates.

“Let’s get it on,” the President said.

Left with only a few minutes to respond before the evening newscasts on the East Coast, Clinton consulted briefly with aides and then announced, “I’m very happy to do a debate. . . . Let’s start this Sunday and do one on the 15th” of October.

But the dates Bush proposed, Clinton said, conflicted with an American League championship playoff game and possibly with two World Series games.

“If you do just Sunday debates, you are going to run into that. So what I think we ought to do is, let’s do one Sunday, let’s do one on the 15th and then let’s talk to the debate commission about what else ought to be done.”

Later Tuesday, Clinton campaign chairman Mickey Kantor questioned Bush’s proposal, saying, “I don’t think this is a serious offer or the President would have accepted the bipartisan commission’s debates.” He reiterated that the Clinton camp would only discuss debates under the commission’s aegis.

Bush campaign Chairman Robert M. Teeter indicated that the President’s team was not inclined to negotiate the issue. “We expect the Clinton campaign to accept the President’s challenge. If they do not, we can only conclude Bill Clinton is not as willing to debate as he claims,” Teeter said in a statement.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., the co-chairman of the debate commission and former Republican National Committee chairman, reacted positively to the Bush proposal. “We welcome the President’s announcement,” he said. “It looks like we will have debates.”

Earlier in the day, the commission had sent letters to both candidates giving them a deadline of 5 p.m. EST Tuesday to agree to sit down with the group to work out a compromise over the debate impasse. The letter had noted that finding alternative days is difficult because of the baseball playoffs and the World Series, as well as Sunday and Monday night football games.

Bush also proposed that there be two vice presidential debates over the next five weeks, one under each format, between Vice President Dan Quayle and Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee, Clinton’s running mate. He did not suggest possible dates.

The debate over the debates had become a drag on both campaigns, but especially for Bush. A study by the debate commission found that not one newspaper in the country had expressed sympathy on its editorial pages for the President’s position. And Bush found himself challenged at each of his recent rallies by Clinton supporters in chicken suits, taunting the President for resisting the debates, a picture that the network and local television producers found irresistible.

But while he was winning the public relations battle, Clinton and his aides were also off stride because they were uncertain whether to prepare for debates and how they would fit into their travel schedule and political game plan.

A senior Administration official said that White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III had been mulling the new debate plan for some time--”This was not dreamed up this morning,” the official said. He said Republican strategists believed that the proposal would work to Bush’s advantage.

First, the plan minimizes the potential risk of any single debate, a format at which Bush aides believe Clinton may have more skill than the President.

Second, White House officials believe that Bush, being behind, could be helped because the last debate would occur only three days before Election Day, ensuring him of one last chance to dramatically alter the outcome. The commission proposal to end debates Oct. 15 might effectively freeze the campaign at that point, the Administration aides said.

White House aides said they were “gleeful” over Bush’s surprise announcement and the attention it garnered.

But Clinton called the move an act of desperation. “I think they thought for a long time we wouldn’t have debates and they got pounded on it, so they come up with this at the last minute.

Before Bush dove into the debate issue, the campaign day had followed the rough contours it had assumed of late.

Bush, reiterating past efforts, sought to link Clinton to three recent Democratic presidential candidates who were rejected by the voters.

The Arkansas governor, Bush said, “learned his liberalism from George McGovern.” (Clinton helped run the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign in Texas.)

The President said Clinton “wore the same moderate costume” as President Jimmy Carter, “but at least Jimmy Carter meant it.” And, Bush said, Clinton nominated Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee four years ago, and praised “the Massachusetts miracle”--the economic success in Dukakis’ home state that initially fueled his presidential bid but then hindered him when it fell flat.

“America does not need this kind of ‘different’ Democrat,” Bush said. “There are some wonderful Democrats out there, but we don’t need this kind of McGovern-Carter-Dukakis Democrat.”

Bush also attacked Clinton for positions he took--and then stepped back from--on auto efficiency standards and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Clinton, after initially expressing support for the trade pact, has since backed off, saying he wanted to study its details once the accord was officially reached. Similarly, he has softened his initial backing for toughened fuel efficiency standards for American automobiles.

“He’ll take both sides,” Bush said. “He’ll say on the one hand, I’m for you, and on the other, I’m for you over here. And when you’re President of the United States you’ve got to make the tough decisions. You can’t waffle, you can’t go around like a chameleon all the time. You’ve got to say what you’re for and vote that way.”

The attacks occurred as Bush spent the day hopscotching aboard Air Force One across Tennessee--Gore’s home state. That’s enough of a connection to put the state into the column of those likely to vote for the Democratic ticket this year, although it has cast its electoral votes--it has 11 this year--for the Republican presidential candidate in five of the past six elections.

If anything, Gore’s standing in the state has been enhanced by his selection by Clinton, and Bush took care not to attack the senator directly--both to avoid antagonizing his supporters in the state and to keep the focus on Clinton.

Bush was introduced at each stop during the day by the retired country music star Naomi Judd, and, as warm-up acts, he was preceded by such Nashville stars as Crystal Gayle, Ricky Skaggs, the Gatlin Brothers and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Although Gore’s position on the Democratic ticket may give Clinton an advantage in Tennessee, a Bush campaign aide said the President spent the day in the state on the recommendation of former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. and Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, two respected Tennessee Republican politicians.

For his part, Clinton traveled Tuesday to Louisville, which was the site of the proposed vice presidential debate that was to have occurred Tuesday until the White House rejected it.

That allowed Clinton to continue to hammer Bush on that issue. He also blasted Bush on the economic front. Citing a report on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last Sunday, Clinton told a cheering crowd of several thousand outside the Kentucky Center for the Arts that “the Bush Administration spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on programs to finance the movement of American businesses overseas.”

“George Bush promised us 30 million jobs in eight years,” he said. “He just didn’t tell us where the jobs were going to be. We thought he was going to create jobs in San Antonio and San Francisco and San Bernardino, not in San Salvador.”

Clinton used the fact that Bush was campaigning in Tennessee to make his point, contending that the state has suffered job losses that stem from Administration policies.

Times staff writers Sam Fulwood III, Douglas Jehl and Doyle McManus contributed to this story.