What To Expect In The Second Presidential Debate
This article originally appeared in Forbes.
The work week ended with two bombshells—The Washington Post obtained and posted a 2005 video of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump saying inexcusable things about women and WikiLeaks released alleged Clinton campaign emails showing excerpts from paid speeches that she has refused to release herself. Americans don’t have to wait any longer for October surprises.
But many are anxiously awaiting to see what the second presidential debate on Sunday night will bring.
One of the key questions for the debate on Sunday is whether Trump will show up prepared for it or not, assuming Trump is still in the race.
Trump won the support of legendary Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight who was known for his extreme game preparation when he was coaching. In a stump speech during the hotly contested Indiana primary, Knight said of Trump, “You folks are taking a look at the most prepared man in history to step in as president of the United States, that man right there.” This was not the case at the first debate.
Much talk leading up to the first presidential debate on September 26 centered on a contrast between Trump taking a more relaxed approach and Clinton leaving the campaign trail to practice. It showed. Trump was unprepared for predictable questions and missed opportunities to nail Clinton on her weaknesses. Take a question on cybersecurity—why didn’t he hammer on her email scandal?
And then there is the woman question. As I wrote here, it was predictable that either the moderator or Clinton would press Trump on his inappropriate statements about women. After all, he has struggled on these questions from Trump’s first debate with Fox’s Megyn Kelly raising the issue. Trump failed to answer Clinton’s question on his use of language when talking about women.
Now there is the “Access Hollywood” video of Trump boasting to Billy Bush about the terrible way he treats women as sex objects. That issue is going to come up. His comments are indefensible. He needs to be prepared to apologize again and respond sincerely. Prominent Republicans are withdrawing their support and more and more are calling on him to step down. Senator Mike Crapo, who had endorsed Trump, issued a statement this morning rescinding his endorsement and asking for Trump to step aside. In an interview with The Washington Post this morning, Trump said, “I’d never withdraw. I’ve never withdrawn in my life.”
The person who could replace Trump is his Vice Presidential running mate Governor Mike Pence. Pence hands down won the one and only vice presidential debate on Tuesday. Pence came across as calm, measured and trustworthy—characteristics that voters want in a president and vice president and are sorely missing this election cycle. His opponent, Senator Tim Kaine, came across as an annoying dog nipping at heels. Pence did what he needed to do—made America more comfortable with him after the debate.
As for Clinton, she has been on the national political stage for more than two decades, so her expectations are higher. She needs to get better at answering questions about her scandals from the deleted emails to the latest from WikiLeaks. And she has to continue to try to get people excited to vote for her, including those staunch Senator Bernie Sanders supporters and Independents. One way to do this is to win people to her side, and the other, is to turn more people against Trump.
There are so many sensational stories this election cycle, it is no wonder that important policy issues like the failures of ObamaCare aren’t getting their due.
Tune in at 9pm EST Sunday to see some inevitable fireworks and maybe some policy discussions.