Donald Trump’s secret weapon for Debate No. 2 (Crowley)

[corbe]

By Monica Crowley - The Washington Times - Wednesday, October 5, 2016

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

One of the biggest ironies of the first presidential debate is that Donald Trump’s reluctance to aggressively attack Hillary Clinton has now given him the license to fully do so.

Going into the debate — his debut on the world’s biggest stage — everyone, including his closest aides, was telling him that he must achieve plausibility: That is, he needed to reassure voters by looking reasonable, confident and self-possessed. If he were able to demonstrate an even temperament and basic command of the issues, voters could picture him behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office — and Mrs. Clinton’s negative ads about his unfitness would melt away.

Mr. Trump took his marching orders seriously and pulled his punches, at one point even acknowledging his self-restraint: “I was going to say something really rough about Hillary and her family, but I told myself it was not nice. But she spent tons of money on horrible ads about me, and I’ve spent virtually nothing.”


Many are now demanding that he truly go on the attack. Since it’s in the political bloodstream that he did not hit her proactively the last time, he now has a free hand to up the ante without being stigmatized as an unsuitable hothead.

An Arkansas source says that Mrs. Clinton’s debate prep crew has coached her to maintain an air of superiority around Mr. Trump while trying to provoke him. They tell her to avoid getting upset so as not to feed the “Angry Hillary” narrative and to dismiss him as a serious contender every chance she gets. 

Therein lies the critical lesson for Mr. Trump: No matter what abuse she hurls his way, he mustn’t let it misdirect him down a defensive rabbit hole. There’s no time for that.


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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/5/donald-trumps-secret-weapon-for-debate-no-2/

[Oceander]

He bought hisself some brains from Jina.

[geronl]

The fact that Trump supporters think their guy needs a secret weapon, or some release from wikileaks or some outside intervention like a terror attack tells me they know he's incompetent