And therein lies both the rub and the opportunity. If Trump rightly judges what he must do to win, he will play neither the chump nor the reality TV star but the candidate possessed of the requisite gravitas for the office. If Trump can demonstrate that he is of true presidential timber, he confounds all his critics in the media and on the left.
If he rightly judges that his task is not to beat back every assault launched by the moderator and by Hillary, but rather to look and sound presidential, he will have won the debate. Ronald Reagan did this in 1980 and John F. Kennedy did it in 1960. Both candidates had been accused of lack of experience or eccentricities or out of the mainstream ideology. Both were wise enough not to berate the opponent, the moderator or the public into seeing the brilliance of their ideology, or their intelligence, but merely to let the people see that they could be president.
Much of America will be watching Trump for the first time carefully to see if he is really as big a bogeyman as he has been alleged to be. Let him disappoint them in these expectations even as he reassures them.
This is the perfect example of a race in which the people are looking for some way not to vote for Hillary Clinton. Hillary and her seconds whom we call moderators will be desperately trying to push Trump into playing the TV reality star or the eccentric. Let Hillary have an issue but let Trump win the war.
The press will be searching, as always, for some gaffe and they fully expect Trump to oblige. They will seize any gaffe and expand it into a deal breaker, just as they have done within this news cycle against the libertarian. Better to give Hillary the point edge on a given issue than to overreach and commit a gaffe. Again, the idea is not to score points but to appear presidential.
When Trump proceeds secure in the knowledge that this is a binary election, that is, the only choice is between him and Hillary, he should have the self-confidence to be reassuring, which is really all that is needed.
