The third and—thank all the gods anyone has ever believed in—final debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is Wednesday night. Depending which debate preview you read, this is either Trump’s last chance to change the dynamics of the race or he has no chance to do so. (Count me on the “no chance” side.) But that means we’re likely to once again get vicious, nothing-to-lose Trump lashing out in whatever ways he thinks will cause the most pain.
If, as USA Today’s David Jackson writes, the five things Trump needs to do are “Decide whether to be the ‘issues’ Trump or the ‘take-no-prisoners’ Trump,” “Address women directly,” “Act presidential,” “get beyond attacking Clinton,” and “Avoid a big blow-up,” the answer is, in all likelihood, no. Trump will not do those things. If he decides to be the “issues” Trump, whatever that even means, his resolve will break down long before the debate ends. When he addresses women directly, he tends to insult them. He is incapable of acting presidential. He has no argument for himself beyond attacking Clinton. He thinks blowing up shows his strength. Unless there’s a whole new Donald Trump tonight, he would need to be graded on a steep curve to meet these goals.
The Clinton campaign has already averted one possible avenue for Trump stunts, changing the pre-debate moments so that Bill Clinton and Melania Trump will not cross paths and shake hands. That’s because, at the last debate, the Trump campaign tried to ambush Clinton with women who’ve accused him of sexual wrongdoing, only being stopped at the last moment by the debate commission. The Clinton campaign doesn’t want to risk the Trump side being successful with their next attempt.
Meanwhile, the pundits seem to agree that Hillary Clinton has to not just remain unfazed by Trump’s attacks, but somehow blast through them to show that she is presidential and will represent everyone and has a vision and blah blah blah. Guys. She has shown that she is presidential—that she knows what a president needs to know, that she is calm under pressure, that she wants to be president for everyone, not just the people who voted for her. In the face of what we’re likely to see from Trump, it will be awfully presidential if she manages not to curse, throw things, or deck her opponent.
Once again, the debate is at 9 PM ET and will last for 90 minutes. Once again, it will be aired on both network and cable news channels and streamed widely. And once again, Daily Kos will be liveblogging. And then we’ll all crawl into our warm little caves for a celebratory weep that we never again have to watch Donald Trump “debate.”
