Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican opponent Donald Trump are set to square off Monday night in the first 2016 presidential debate. While Clinton has been poring over briefing books to study Trump's style, Trump has shown little interest in reviewing memos on Clinton or engaging in mock debates, according to reports. (Andrew Kelly, Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
Tonight's first U.S. presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is a study in personality clashes. It's also a test of two opposing preparation strategies, one of which may not involve much prep at all.
Trump, the go-with-his-gut billionaire Republican with a knack for one-liners, faces off at 9 p.m. ET against Clinton, the Democratic former secretary of state with an unmatched political record and all the undesired baggage.
The FiveThirtyEight blog's political team, referencing The Simpsons, described it as a "Bart Simpson versus Lisa Simpson" scenario — a showdown between a freewheeling arch-provocateur and a political keener presenting herself as a moral centre but nevertheless struggling with unpopularity.
Both candidates share popularity woes (55 per cent unfavourablity for Clinton; 59 per cent for Trump, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll).
Meanwhile, their debate-prep styles could scarcely be more different.
Clinton is doing her homework about her wild-card opponent, her aides told the New York Times. She reportedly spends hours studying Trump's style, takes notes from opposition research memos and watches highlight reels.
Cheeseburger prep sessions
Trump's camp is soliciting friends for help, emailing surveys that ask supporters, in one example, whether they want him to taunt Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" on stage.- Everything you need to know about presidential debates
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Such lack of interest could be to his peril, warns Ted Kaufman, the Democratic strategist and former Delaware senator who oversaw mock debates for Vice-President Joe Biden in 2008 and 2012.
LIVE DEBATE COVERAGE
Watch the debate live on CBCNews.ca and CBC News Network starting at 9 pm. ET. CBC News reporter Matt Kwong and poll analyst Eric Grenier will be taking your questions and fact checking the candidates on our live blog.Trump says his more lax approach is about authenticity.
Clinton leads Trump by just 2.5 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics national polling average.
Her challenge is preparing for the unpredictability of a populist candidate whose disdain for political correctness won over enough conservatives to vault him to the Republican nomination. Another challenge? To find a debating partner unafraid to spout lacerating insults to her in warm-ups.
"I am running against someone who will say or do anything," Clinton said at a fundraiser in East Hampton, N.Y. "And who knows what that might be?"
'Multiple' Trumps
The identity of Clinton's Trump stand-in remains a secret, although billionaire reality TV star Mark Cuban has offered to take the Trump role, a proposal endorsed by Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan and editor of the e-book Debating Trump."A third scenario is a Jekyll and Hyde," he says, suggesting Clinton might benefit from practising with "multiple Trump stand-ins."
Tonight's debate moderated by NBC's Lester Holt is expected to be the most widely watched in history, with estimates it could attract 100 million viewers. It will also be the first of either candidate's debate performances to be viewed by many Americans, and an opportunity for Trump to present himself as presidential.
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Exploiting emails, Benghazi response
Trump will need to avoid falling into a trap or "losing his cool" if Clinton prods him on possible insecurities about his intelligence or business failures, or if she brings up his son's sharing of white-supremacist online memes, Kall says."She's going to try to get to him, to attack him personally, and any time family members get involved, he might get defensive," Kall says.
"Trump is going to try to get Hillary to make excuses and sound defensive."
Clinton's seasoned team of debate preppers has built a psychological profile to help her get under Trump's skin, as well as steel herself against potentially cutting personal digs about her husband Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs, the Times reports.
'Trigger points'
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Trump's autobiography The Art of the Deal, is reportedly consulting on "trigger points" to fluster Trump.Kaufman, who coached Biden for the 2008 debates, can think of no better comparison for Clinton versus Trump than the vice-president's faceoff against another unconventional debater, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
So Palin's stand-in, former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, aimed to draw Biden into "mansplaining" or talking down to her.
"You've got to recognize and respect the fact that he won all these primaries, and didn't win them for nothing."
Tonight's 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., will be divided into six segments of about 15 minutes each on major topics. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to a question, then debate the opponent in a deeper discussion.
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