It'll be the Hofstra Hurly-Burly. The Long Island Battle Royal. The Donald Donnybrook. The Hillary Hullabaloo.
Whatever it's called, it'll be, to literally quote Trump: "YUGE. VERY VERY YUGE."
Next Monday night's presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, is must-see TV. There will be more hits, more tackles, more red flags, more offsides and more lead changes in 90 minutes than every Monday Night Football game ever played.
If only Howard Cossell were alive to call it.
Best of all, it'll be toe-to-toe, with word Friday that neither third-party candidates - Jill Stein with the Green Party or Gary Johnson with the Libertarian's - had qualified, based on their polling numbers.
James Fallows of The Atlantic magazine wrote a long essay, When Donald Meets Hillary, of how Monday - and the two October debates to follow - could go down. To stay with the football metaphor, any assessment of the debates ahead sound more than a little like the bulky men in big suits who get together each Sunday morning in the fall to discuss who's going to win that day's National Football League matchups. The Clinton-Trump debates will come down to offence, defence, ball possession and putting points on the board.
The playbooks for both candidates are already well-known and established.
Clinton will play an old-school, brutal game, what the Sunday suits call smash mouth football.
She will try to wear down Trump with a relentless, patient attack, moving the ball slowly and methodically with lots of rushing and little passing, gaining a few yards at a time, rather than going for the big plays. On defence, she will play the same way, guarding against giving up major yards while trying to dictate control at the line of scrimmage, blocking avenues of attack and making quick tackles. It's boring to watch and leads to low-scoring games but it's the safest path to a hard-earned victory by an experienced and well-prepared team.
Trump will play the West Coast offence, a riskier game that involves throwing long bombs, running trick plays and spreading the game over the entire field to confuse and frustrate a traditional defence. A West Coast team doesn't care so much about defence or how many points they give up because they're comfortable just worrying about outscoring the opposition. Winning 49-45 is still a win and it's highly entertaining to watch, usually because the last team with the ball usually wins on the final play of the game.
Quick way to know who won Monday?
Fallows suggest watching the televised debate with the sound off. The body language and the facial expression will tell the whole story.
That sounds like a stretch but the science - and televised debates going back to the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debate - supports it. The words and what they mean count but the sounds and optics are everything, which is why both Clinton and Trump will want to appear presidential and to sound confident and knowledgeable. The battle for hearts and minds is won and lost there, not on finesse points on foreign policy.
In other words, how it's said is better remembered than what was said.
For Clinton, she needs to demonstrate she'll be mother-in-chief, not mother-in-law-in-chief, smart and tough, not shrill and demanding. That sounds sexist but the gender lens also applies to Trump. To appeal to voters uncertain of he's a rational choice for president, he must portray himself as the sharp and wise Mr. Trump of The Apprentice - B.S. intolerant (except for his own), short on flattery and long on devastating criticism, confident and decisive. In other words, he's out to be dad, the one admired as a child and respected as an adult, not the despised S.O.B. to be avoided at all cost.
In football, parenting and politics, most players seek domination and control to carry the day. Clinton follows this model but Fallows points out that Trump opts for humiliating his opponents with as much cruel flair as possible. That means spiking the football every time he scores a touchdown, doing an end zone dance and flipping the bird to the booing fans.
No matter who wins or how next Monday night, it'll be harsh, violent and political theatre at its finest.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
