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If Trump Wins The Debate…
Townhall.com ^ | September 26, 2016 | Bryan Crabtree

Posted on 09/26/2016 8:53:20 AM PDT by Kaslin

The first presidential debate is tonight at Hofstra University.

Hillary Clinton’s debate team is likely spending most of their time and effort trying to manufacture moments where she causes Donald Trump to become ‘unhinged.’ Clinton must prove that Trump is unqualified and lacks the temperament to be president. Trump only needs to prove he is capable of handling the pressure in order to win the debate.

Some infer this means Trump will be ‘graded on the curve.’ He will be. This is completely fair given that he has just 18 months of political experience compared to Clinton's nearly 40 years. He is respected for being genuine (even if abrasive). She is anything but genuine.

As many as 100 million people will watch this debate. Many will watch for Clinton to have a ‘short circuit,’ or to see if she is capable of surviving a Trump assault. Few will care about her typical policy diatribes. If she starts preaching (or yelling), she will lose.

By contrast, Trump simply has to find a way to litigate her record (emails, Benghazi, failed campaign promises, jobs, Syria, Iraq, Clinton Foundation, pay-for-play, etc) without appearing as a bully. I’ve heard it said he needs to be ‘a hammer with velvet.’

In the last two months, Trump has intentionally throttled his advertising, attacks and outreach so his campaign can save resources for the final six weeks. Trump has raised over $200 million which he has not spent. Expect him to ‘lend’ his campaign more funds and run an aggressive assault on Clinton beginning tonight.

Clinton's team has been painstakingly preparing her to ‘get under Trump’s skin’ so that he will have an outburst. I believe he will shock us with what he actually does. In fact, I believe Clinton has spent so much time focused on Trump, preparing to antagonize him, that it could result in the worst political moment of her career.

Clinton must not only find a way to be likable, she must reveal to the American people what drives her in public service. If she fails either of these tasks, she will not be able to win (even if she’s more effective than Trump on policy).

If Clinton has a coughing fit during this debate it would almost certainly be the end of her campaign (in terms of a chance to win). She needs plenty of cough medicine prior to the debate just to be sure.

Trump will be best served to allow her to ‘rant and rave’ with loud policy filibusters. Once she begins boring the audience, it will be easy for a ‘hard hit’ by Trump to resonate loudly. For Trump, less is more.

Clinton will likely launch an assault against Trump regarding the Trump Foundation, Trump University, his four hospitality/casino business-bankruptcies and international business-interests. In doing so, she’ll invite an open door for Trump to exploit her biggest weaknesses. He simply needs to point to the facts of Hillary Clinton's email servers, obstruction of justice, unprecedented meetings with donors to the Clinton Foundation (while secretary of state) and the fact that she is a career politician with no practical economic experience. “Hillary, you’ve never run a business, made a payroll or built anything. You’ve always lived off the government. I’ve made mistakes and learned from them; you never have.”

If Trump breeches the topic of her health, her husband's affairs or in any way a attempts to re-litigate the Clinton scandals of the 1990s, it could be devastating for his chances with undecided voters. Those are the topics he has to avoid unless/until Clinton attacks Trump over his marriages or comments about women.

Trump needs to be convincing that Clinton bears responsibility for the fact our country is stagnant in terms of wage growth, the economy and jobs. Moreover, he will need to convince voters that he has better solutions for minorities, poverty, crime and terrorism while contrasting Clinton as being part of the reason we are struggling.

Given his unpredictability, Trump is likely to win this debate. I suspect he will display several different stylistic approaches, which will make it nearly impossible for a very ‘robotic and scripted Clinton’ to be able to play any offense. It will be Trump’s game by his rules.

Lester Holt will likely be a fair moderate but incapable of handling these two wild personalities Trump will need to take over for the moderator on issues that Clinton distorts (especially those that speak to his business record).

I’m hopeful that Trump will ask Clinton (as I don’t anticipate Holt will) the questions she has been avoiding by not holding press conferences. This will likely be the first time Americans have ever truly seen Hillary Clinton interrogated for her illicit behavior.

Conversely, many pundits are predicting that Donald Trump can only remain calm for 45 minutes until Clinton will have baited him into an emotional eruption. I suspect they will both end up in verbal altercations (several times) by the end, regardless of how much debate preparation they’ve conducted to the contrary.

Most presidential debates are a tie between the candidates. This can be different. If Trump prosecutes Clinton’s legal troubles, explains why she cannot be trusted as president and properly articulates why she is dangerous for the country, he will win this debate.

If Trump wins this debate on those terms, he will win the election.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016debates; hillaryrottenclinton
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To: tcrlaf

If the Dems attempt to boot the first woman Presidential candidate they will make so many women mad that they would essentially be growing away their advantage with women for decades.


21 posted on 09/26/2016 9:09:31 AM PDT by WMarshal (Trump 2016)
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To: xzins

Couldn’t disagree more. There is no 10 run rule in politics. Don’t change his game plan at all. Simple run up the score so her fans leave the stadium. (don’t even bother to vote)


22 posted on 09/26/2016 9:09:55 AM PDT by resistance (abandon all hope and rational thought, become a democrat)
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To: MplsSteve
Lazio went after her (to me justifiably) but Hillary spun it as Lazio was being demeaning and aggressive to her.

I suspect that Trump will be prepared for this.

All he has to do is say: "Look, you want to be President. Are you going to play the victim card on Putin, Assad (and any number of authoritarian leaders today) when they refuse to back down?"

If Hillary wants to be US President, she has to act like one. Playing the victim will backfire on her. Yes, there will be some number of precious snowflakes clutching at their pearls, but one thing that most Americans don't want is a weak President.

23 posted on 09/26/2016 9:10:09 AM PDT by justlurking
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To: outpostinmass2

Caroline Kennedy talks like a stupid hillbilly.....dumb as a box of rocks.


24 posted on 09/26/2016 9:10:24 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: MplsSteve

Lazio marched over to her and got in her personal space and thrust a piece of paper at her. That was what caused the meltown not his going after her in the debate.


25 posted on 09/26/2016 9:12:36 AM PDT by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: resistance

Read my post #10 again.


26 posted on 09/26/2016 9:13:17 AM PDT by xzins ( Free Republic Gives YOU a voice heard around the globe. Support the Freepathon!)
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To: tcrlaf

Hahahahaha...

Not going to happen... Soro’s wants Hillary.. Soro’s is getting Hillary.

Hillary can win the debate on every point they judge debates on and it WON’T win her one more vote...

Trump just needs to come across as reasonable.. and as much as the media and the left hate it, when the deliver is unfiltered by their spin, Trumps message is reasonable to most people. The media try to spin it as not, but when someone sees what Trump has said fully and in context, most people are fine with it.

Trump needs to just look reasonable, that’s it. He does that, he wins, no matter how many “points” Hillary may score...

My advice to Trump, is just let her talk... the more she talks the worse she looks... respond in kind to any attacks, but just let her drone on and wonk up anything she wants. Hillary is inauthentic, so the more she’s talking the more the public will conclude that...


27 posted on 09/26/2016 9:14:38 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Kaslin

Sickery will be so drugged up 9:00 PM tonight she will be lucky to know where she is. I wonder if there is a safety belt attached to her podium?


28 posted on 09/26/2016 9:19:10 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: BykrBayb
Is there a live thread yet, for tonight’s debate?

The "live thread" started early Sunday morning.

When I pointed out that it would fall off the "breaking news" sidebar long before this evening, I got flamed.

So, I'll leave it to you to try to find it, or start one of the dozen "live threads" that will soon appear.

29 posted on 09/26/2016 9:19:25 AM PDT by justlurking
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To: Kaslin

I hope she spends the entire debate trying to “get under his skin”

It will remind millions of men why they divorced their bitchy ex-wife, who made their lives a miserable hell.

The only reason Bill Clinton gets ANY sympathy, is because he is married to her.


30 posted on 09/26/2016 9:22:08 AM PDT by Mr. K (<a href="https://imgflip.com/i/1adpjl"><img src="https://i.imgflip.com/1adpjl.jpg" title="made at im)
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To: Kaslin

Tuesday’s headlines are already written, even if Clinton lies and drools her way through the debate:

“Clinton Shows Her Vast Knowledge in Debate”
“Trump Stumbles on Question Over Racist Past”
“Trump Rude to Hillary in Debate”
“Clinton Catches Trump in Lie Over . . . “
“Polls Show Clinton Trouncing Trump”

Blah, blah, blah


31 posted on 09/26/2016 9:25:17 AM PDT by oldbill
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To: tcrlaf

“Even if Trump does win, Americas will never know it if they rely on the MSM’s reporting.”

The stories declaring Hillary’s “BRILLIANT DEBATE VICTORY!!” have already been written, and submitted to MediaMatters.Soros for approval.
___________________________

Predictions are that nearly 100,000,000 will be tuned into the debate tonight. What people see and hear directly will be the most important factor. If Trump holds his own no amount of spin, articles etc will make a difference, it will just be more proof of the media bias.


32 posted on 09/26/2016 9:26:15 AM PDT by georgiarat (Obama, providing incompetence since Day One!)
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To: oh8eleven

Blah blah blah.

Everything is rigged and fixes are in everywhere.

Don’t show up in November if you actually believe this.


33 posted on 09/26/2016 9:27:06 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: oldbill
Tuesday’s headlines are already written, even if Clinton lies and drools her way through the debate:

That would not surprise me one bit.

34 posted on 09/26/2016 9:32:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: georgiarat

Bloomberg taking head just said to Hillary-supporting millionaire Reid Hoffman:

“It’s OBVIOUS that YOU know what the right decision is, but why do you think so many are supporting Trump?”


35 posted on 09/26/2016 9:39:18 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: servo1969
Tonight Trump needs to convince a lot of people he isn’t Hitler; Hillary needs to convince people she isn’t Hillary.

Awesome, stealing!

36 posted on 09/26/2016 9:42:06 AM PDT by MissTed ( Private Tagline - Do Not Read!)
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To: Kaslin

If Ted Cruz can’t beat Trump, no one can beat Trump.


37 posted on 09/26/2016 9:43:11 AM PDT by struggle (The)
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To: Kaslin; All

it would be easy for trump to have a half dozen one-liners memorized in his prep.

the way to take out hillary is to make the first move.

trump should just let loose a humorous but good taste zinger aimed at hillary.

as reader’s digest says, humor is the best medicine. humor will knock hillary off balance for the remainder of the debate.

something inocuous... maybe about how she tends to drone on and bore her audiences on wonky policy issues, eg “i was for TPP before I was against it, though now I am undecided (wink wink)...”


38 posted on 09/26/2016 9:43:23 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: Kaslin

If Trump wins the debate...

Tomorrow will be Tuesday. The election will still be weeks out, and the dems and their media wing will still be trying to find a way to Topple Trump in the minds of his supporters. Hillary is highly unlikely to bow out from this gracefully - she owes too much to too many people/countries to drop out without a hell of a fight, IMO.

Although their desperation will be delicious to observe.


39 posted on 09/26/2016 9:47:25 AM PDT by MortMan (Moderate muslims, please identify the specific prohibitions against violent jihad in the koran.)
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To: oh8eleven

If?

What “if”?

The MSM won’t have a chance as the message gets out to perhaps 100 million viewers.

Can’t predict, can’t avoid, some gaffe, some meltdown on the part of Herself.

Party loyalty only goes so far.

Rigging is only as good as the anchors it is tied to.

I do not envy Lester Holt tonight.


40 posted on 09/26/2016 9:48:04 AM PDT by alloysteel (Of course you will live in interesting times, Nobody has a choice, now.)
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