In the US, the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates has proposed three televised Presidential debates in September and October.
It is fascinating to imagine how these will go. On the one hand we’ll have the ultimate cool-headed policy wonk in Hillary. On the other we will have the hot-headed, insult-firing Trump.
Take a look at some clips of Trump at the Republican nomination debates. If these are anything to go by, we’ll have talk about building a wall with Mexico, getting rid of the “lines between the states” on healthcare and a lot of insults.
But will that really work with Hillary? If she is coolly focussing on policy substance, will the bluster of Trump work? Will he have the audacity to call Hillary “crooked” to her face? (He refers to as “Crooked Hillary” regularly). Will he come over as a bully (even more than usual)?
In the words of David Stewart on Quora.com:
Trump will have to change his style and brush up his game. His debate tactics in the past have involved trying to gain attention in a crowded field. He’s been on stage with others who have all been vying for focus and keen to interrupt. His style has involved trying to get in and get a soundbite, insult or zinger out so it makes the news edits while the debate rages around him.
When he’s up against Clinton, he won’t need to fight for attention, he will have to deal with the spotlight. Questions are going to be addressed to him directly and the room will fall silent while they expect a direct answer. And Clinton will be next to him taking notes ready to rebut when he’s finished. It’s not a forum in which Donald is at his best.
There will also be moments when difficult questions about domestic and foreign policy will be asked. That sort of stuff plays directly to Clinton’s strengths. She knows her stuff and can say things like “I remember when I was meeting with David Cameron” or “I was addressing attending this trade conference” She will be able to quote facts and figures and details and look like a woman who knows what she is talking about. Trump has shown that he’s not a details guy and will flounder when pressed for details.
Hillary Clinton has already agreed to the debates. Trump has yet to agree to them. Could it be possible that he will just skip them, as some outsiders fear?
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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11 Comments
Terrible.
Sorry, I mean the debates will be terrible. No objection to the article.
If Dimbleby gets to chair it it would be a rerun of Farage v Clegg
Hillary should wear a bullet proof vest.
There will be a surfeit of rancour.
I have never understood the extent of the low opinion of Hillary Clinton , flawed yes , lousy , no way .
I cannot understand the continuation of the appeal of Donald Trump, terrible , yes, presidential , noway no how !
Clinton is going to make him continue to look like the hideous candidate he is . She can be shrill. She is intelligent . He cannot be anything other than , as they say across the pond , a pain in the a…!!!
I look forward to DT telling Hillary to not split hairs. 😉
I am still intrigued as to how anybody of either gender could even think of voting for a man who fails to recognise that his own particular response to male pattern baldness only emphasise it and makes him look even stranger than he actually is.
“it would be a rerun of Farage v Clegg”
Is the one that Clegg lost by a huge margin or by an even bigger margin?
As Paul acknowledges, this does rather depend on Trump showing up. He’s been complaining so vigorously about the timing and the formats – ignoring that both are set by a non-partisan independent commission rather than the parties – that it looks about evens that he’ll simply ignore the debates. In that case, the ‘debates’ might simply consist of long interviews with Hilary Clinton. And if this doesn’t seem like a rational decision on Trump’s part, then, well… since when has that stopped him?
Watch out for the “J-curve”, or, as George Bush senior put it, “voodoo economics”, until he accepted the Vice-Presidency under Reagan and did the same thing himself. Cutting taxes can be popular, running a budget deficit in the trillions of US dollars can be irresponsible.
Bill Clinton ascribed the success of the US economy during his Presidency to “arithmetic”.
George H W Bush has said he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
The election of Bill Clinton prevented George Bush (senior) from having a second term as President. In “My Life” Bill Clinton commented that George Bush did not make personal attacks on him, but the Republican party had an attack-dog section which did.
Another Bush, former governor of Florida at the time of the “hanging chads” election was defeated in the Republican primaries by Donald Trump.