The setting of expectations for this final presidential debate is beginning to border on the surreal:
What’s next? “If Trump doesn’t run screaming around the stage, grabbing his crotch and waggling his tongue, that’s a big victory”?
Moderator Chris Wallace has set his own expectations low, as well, saying he wants to be a “timekeeper,” rather than doing anything extreme like challenging Trump’s blatant lies.
But don’t worry. It’s not as if nobody on the stage will face high expectations. Here’s the challenge ABC’s Rick Klein laid out for Hillary Clinton. She needs to both answer Trump’s stunts and attacks, “perhaps more aggressively than at the second debate,” and also:
Clinton is now less than three weeks away from being elected president, barring a stunning collapse. Acting like that means not just rebutting and attacking Trump but going broad, reminding voters of her promise, not just her opponent’s weaknesses. There’s an opportunity if not an urgency for her to use the final presidential debate to appear downright presidential.
So she should respond aggressively to the lowest, meanest attacks Donald Trump can muster, yet also show her vision and look presidential. Got it. That’s super doable. Additionally, USA Today wants her to provide a running fact-check of Trump—an effort that would either involve interrupting him constantly or using all of her speaking time to accomplish, and would result in her being called out by a million pundits for being insufficiently presidential.
Basically, Clinton will have to do all the things in order to get any credit. Meanwhile, Trump just has to say one coherent thing about policy and refrain from foaming at the mouth or grabbing anyone’s genitals, and Wallace has to correctly read the clocks that will be provided in order to clear their special masculine bars. On the plus side, it sounds like it might be an event that mobilizes women voters.
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