Although the presidential debates dates have been set for a while, Bush's team says he wouldn't actually be dropping out of the debate scheduled for Washington University in St. Louis because they never agreed to the debates in the first place.
They claim the reason is that the debate is a "town hall" type meeting and they are afraid the Gallup Organization who is to choose the audience members to ask questions will pull a trick on them by slipping partisan voters in place of undecided voters. They apparently don't want want to answer questions from real people, but as it stands now they
are OK with the other 2 debates where moderators will ask questions in pre-determined topics.
More info in these articles:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...-debates_x.htm
Bush Likely to Bow Out of 1 Debate
Bush, Kerry might not meet in St. Louis, report says
Debates could disadvantage Bush, profs say
Get Ready for 2 or 3 Presidential Debates
Bush might skip one of three debates