TRUMP VS CLINTON IN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

With only a year in national politics,Trump does not have to show a mastery of foreign and domestic policy details on Monday night’s debate. Rather he has to meet and exceed expectations. He has to convince a plurality of voters, who seem prepared to vote for him, that he’s not a terrible risk and that he will be a president of whom they can be proud. He has to show the country a Trump that contradicts the caricature created by those who dominate US politics, culture and press. The Trump on stage at Hofstra University will have 90 minutes to show that the malicious cartoon of Donald Trump is a libelous lie.

The winner of presidential debates is not the one who compiles the most debating points. It is the one whom the audience decides they like, and can be comfortable taking a chance on.

Specifically, what does Trump need to do? He needs to show that he can be presidential. He needs to speak with confidence, but not cockiness, and to deal with Clinton’s attacks directly, but with dignity and not disrespect. And humor always helps. He just needs to seem a reasonable person.

He doesn’t need to be the aggressor. As long as he’s firm and calm, he is implicitly rebutting the case against him on temperament.

Clinton has a more difficult assignment: America knows she knows the issues. But two-thirds of the country does not believe her to be honest or trustworthy. She has no bold agenda, no New Deal or New Frontier. America has seen enough of her and has no great desire to see any more; and she cannot change an impression hardened over 25 years – in 90 minutes. No matter how she performs though, Donald Trump can win the debate, for he is the one over whom the question marks hang. But he is also the one who can dissipate and destroy them with a presidential performance. In that sense, this debate and this election are Trump’s to win.

In only a minority of cases have politicians gained or lost ground based on what they said, rather than how they looked while saying it. The rule is that the way candidates react, immediately and usually involuntarily, while caught by the camera, dominates impressions of who has “won” or “lost” an encounter. Images matter more than words or logic. This debate as well as the other two that will follow would be must-watch TV because they would be the most extreme contrast of personal, intellectual, and political styles in America’s democratic history.