What Clinton and Trump must worry about in the first debate
By Karen Tumulty The Washington Post
Published Sept. 26, 2016
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0916/tumulty092616.php3#FdzCZgHFhgcDfzBL.99The first presidential debate of the general election is often the most treacherous - especially for the candidate who steps on stage with the presumed advantage.
Which is why Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the one in that position this time around, knows not to take anything for granted.
Monday's 90-minute faceoff at Hofstra University on Long Island is projected to have the biggest audience ever for politics' equivalent of the National Basketball Association playoffs, with estimates that upward of 100 million people will be watching.
"You can't really win an election in a debate, but you can lose one," said Brett O'Donnell, a communications consultant with long experience coaching Republican presidential candidates. "The first debate is the most important of all the debates, and it definitely has the most potential to harm."
Examples of first-debate stumbles are many. And they have almost always hurt the candidate for whom the expectations were higher.
The biggest pitfall is a blunder that confirms the misgivings that voters may already be harboring.
A confused Ronald Reagan rambled in 1984, opening doubts about whether he had become too old to do the most important job in the world. In 2000, Al Gore sighed and exaggerated. George W. Bush casually draped himself over the lectern in 2004 and peevishly quibbled on minor points. Four years ago, an aloof Barack Obama seemed to phone it in....
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