I insisted on watching the Presidential Debate live. For me, that meant waking up at 4 AM. I’m one of 500,000 ex-pat Americans living in Israel. I know that many Americans saw this debate as important (100,000,000 people supposedly tuned in), but it’s big news here too. All three national TV channels carried the debate live. I watched on MSNBC.
We all know that the two candidates would be held to different standards. Sec. Clinton is the seasoned, professional, politician and would have to be flawless yet unnaturally natural. Trump could not pee on himself while on stage. Leaving aside Trump’s incoherent ramblings, I thought Sec. Clinton did a very fine job. But as Gov. Christie said in a moment of lucidity, all candidates should review their debate performance to improve for the next one. Here are my five suggestions for Hillary Clinton for the next debate:
(1) Smooth out the transitions.
There’s no question that Hillary practiced and prepared talking points, facts, arguments, and policy statements for weeks before the debate. She knew them well. But going from answering a question to bringing in a policy point was choppy. It was obvious that she was switching to a prepared statement. This is one of the things that average viewers don’t like… a politician ignoring the question and talking about what they want. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are masterful at the transition, and bringing it all together (admittedly difficult in a 2-minute window). While Hillary will never be Bill, she can learn a thing or two about a smoother speaking style.
(2) Be the policy wonk we know and love.
Americans are generally low information voters. Hillary has been there and done that in every issue on the table. Tell us about that experience, what you’ve done, how you did it, and how it helped Americans. Real, concrete things the average American can relate to. Trump is the blubbering fool that will tell you the problem, but without a solution. And certainly he can’t tell you what he’s done in his 70 years on Earth to fix the problem, because he’s made it worse.
(3) Be more conversant in international trade.
Trump opened with a strong salvo against international trade deals and how the US is getting it’s clock cleaned. While this isn’t entirely true, it’s effective to people who are not well-versed in the nuances of international trade and economics (about 98% of the population). Hillary has to come back next time with hard facts about how trade deals have created millions of jobs in the US through export, that replaced old jobs sent overseas decades ago. And about how we’ve transitioned to a service economy over the last 25 years, building a trade SURPLUS on the services side of the ledger to the tune of $300 billion. She has to talk about how, as Secretary of State, she led the fight against China and India violating trade deals in the World Trade Organization and won EVERY SINGLE TIME. We are winners. She’s been fighting the good fight for years on behalf of the American worker and he doesn’t even understand the rules. Then go into how we can help Americans by providing job training and education for 21st century jobs (5 million of which remain unfilled), and how we can encourage new business to flourish here.
(4) Be the fact-checker.
Have names, dates, and quotes at the ready. And then, ask Americans how they can vote for someone who blatant lies to them on stage to convince them of a reality that doesn’t exist. It’s one thing to say that he lies. No one is bringing the argument full circle. Why does his lying matter? Make it matter.
(5) Beat the hell out of Trump for the Gennifer Flowers thing.
I don’t care what the first question of the debate is, Hillary has to hit back hard. It should sound like this: “At the previous debate, Mr. Trump insinuated that there was some very harsh attack he wanted to level against me but decided it was too tough. After the debate we found out what that attack was… he was going to attack my husband for an affair he had 30 years ago. Mr. Trump, what in the HELL does my husband’s marital mistakes have to do with my fitness to be president? Or the lives of Americans struggling to make ends meet and get again. Or our policy towards our allies and adversaries. How DARE YOU of all people, a man who cheated on his first wife with his second, and his second with his third, all in the public eye, destroying your family to get your jollies with younger and younger super models, lecture on family values? Is this the value of a woman to you? Whether she can keep her man happy? I saw your tweet of [whatever date]. All American women and men saw that. Mr. Trump, I’ve been married to my husband for over 40 years, through good times and bad. I’m proud of my husband and my family. You want to talk about tough? Keep your family together through tough times, then we’ll see what kind of man you are.”
Some of these are small tweaks, but that may make all the difference. A professional is always looking to get better. Trump will, I think, improve (if he shows up).
How do you think Hillary can improve in the second debate?