First presidential debate - September 26: Trump vs Hillary

[Vilendor]

For the maximum entertainment i expect a headbang-seizure from Hillary.

[Lenonis]

No I hope he loses the debate but he is good at deflecting and attacking. As long as he does his homework, there isn't much Clinton can attack him on. I hope she can pull herself together for the first time in months but she seems pretty content about letting the gap close between her and the most hated presidential candidate in generations.

That really kinda goes for both candidates at least in the sense that if they both have done their homework they will be ready and prepared to look good.

Everyone already knows them. You can't turn on the news without seeing their faces and hearing them give speeches. Anyone who remotely follows this election knows their positions and their stories. Anyone who doesn't probably doesn't care about the debate in the first place. Allowing Gary Johnson to debate (who is polling higher than any third party candidate since Ross Perot) would put a little bit of pressure on them to actually be smart for once instead of just appeasing to their base and pandering to their parties.

I think you are vastly underestimating the undecided population.

I do understand your point -- I just don't think having third parties up on stage would do more benefit than harm. These three debates are going to be very key and could likely decide the election. I'd prefer to just have the two slugging it out.

There are a lot of things that need to happen to make third parties viable, but I've already ranted about that enough -- no need to derail the thread with it.

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trumps a pretty good debater so this will be intersesting

Trump is charismatic -- I'm not sure I'd call him a good debater. He's low on facts and tends to get nasty. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But he is very charismatic and a debate allows him to use that to influence voters.

Clinton, however, is also a good debater. She's experienced and has a lot of policy knowledge. What she lacks, however, is charisma.

[Garnier Fructis]

trumps a pretty good debater so this will be intersesting

This really depends on what you consider good debating. His style is very much focused on persuasion and playing to the crowd as opposed to using well reasoned arguments based in fact. Most of the time he doesn't even come close to answering the question, more so than every other presidential candidate we've seen in recent years.

It makes him look smart and idiotic at the same time. Idiotic because what he's actually presenting at the debate is a long string of non-sequiturs and other nonsense, and smart because it's effective persuasion. I'm mostly convinced that the smart aspect of it is an accident; that it's simply his personality and not some actual planned tactic.

[Deleted]

Will it trump this battle?

[hrugner]

I'm mostly convinced that the smart aspect of it is an accident; that it's simply his personality and not some actual planned tactic.

I think it's pretty well honed. The type of nonsense he spouts has enough in it to lead exaggerators in the media to move to interpret his words in a very extreme fashion while giving him enough leeway for a more reasonable interpretation for his adherents. You don't just stumble onto that balance, you develop a character around it. I'm impressed, it's a shame he wouldn't make a good president because he could certainly advocate well for one.

[Garnier Fructis]

I think it's pretty well honed. The type of nonsense he spouts has enough in it to lead exaggerators in the media to move to interpret his words in a very extreme fashion while giving him enough leeway for a more reasonable interpretation for his adherents. You don't just stumble onto that balance, you develop a character around it. I'm impressed, it's a shame he wouldn't make a good president because he could certainly advocate well for one.

What you're describing is more Ted Cruz and less Donald Trump. Trump simply says things, and sometimes these 'reasonable' interpretations either flat out contradict what he said, or require a lot of playing-dumb to accept.

I hadn't ever seen someone like Ted Cruz who actually does it on purpose and does it well, I might have agreed that Trump wasn't just doing this on accident.

[Arganis]

Yeah no. Taking something to calm nerves is absolutely not what he said. You might live in an alternate reality where you get to reinterpret what people say into your feels but I don't.

Sure you don't, keep up the fight keyboard warrior.

[Deleted]

One interesting factor is that apparently Hillary has made arrangements for Mark Cuban to be sat in the front row of the audience... what kind of insanity is gonna happen!!!

[Deleted]

So, here's the debate starting time for different time zones for most of the US and Europe just in case someone's interested;

The US
21:00 (9PM) EDT or Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4) on Monday, September 26th
20:00 (8PM) CDT or Central Daylight Time (UTC-5) on Monday, September 26th
19:00 (7PM) MDT or Mountain Daylight Time (UTC-6) on Monday, September 26th
18:00 (6PM) PDT or Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7) on Monday, September 26th

Europe
02:00 (2AM) BST or British Summer Time (UTC+1) on Tuesday, September 27th
03:00 (3AM) CEST or Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) on Tuesday, September 27th
04:00 (4AM) EEST or Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) on Tuesday, September 27th

[Breccia]

One interesting factor is that apparently Hillary has made arrangements for Mark Cuban to be sat in the front row of the audience... what kind of insanity is gonna happen!!!

Every 5 minutes, the director will order the cameraman to pan over to get his reaction, then instantly cut away because Cuban's still flipping Trump off.

[DocSavageFan]

For the maximum entertainment i expect a headbang-seizure from Hillary.

Or stumble as she steps onto her step stool. Dollars to doughnuts she braces herself with the podium before stepping onto it!

[zmp]

Going to be interesting to see a debate between two of the brightest and smartest Americans: Hillary and Trump - the best candidates the US could come up with.

[DocSavageFan]

Trump should ask for a step stool too! lol

[mvaliz]

Brilliant video from John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" show, comparing detailing and comparing Hillary's and Dump's scandals (and don't think John goes easy on Hillary!)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Lfd1aB9YI

[TZucchini]

Going to be interesting to see a debate between two of the brightest and smartest Americans: Hillary and Trump - the best candidates the US could come up with.

To be fair to the actual best and brightest of America: The job of Presidency sucks. I couldn't imagine anyone actually wanting to hold that job title. It's thankless. The hours suck. The pay sucks by comparison. You travel constantly. Your life and the life of your family is constantly at risk. There's no privacy. Half the country hates you. You're constantly being blamed for things you have no control over. You're responsible for the largest military on earth, and may need to make decisions which could severely impact the entire planet.

So it shouldn't be surprising that the job of Presidency doesn't attract the best and brightest.

[alemaite]

If someone told me 10 years ago that these two were going to be the candidates I would've bet all my money on him/her talking huge bs. I think the debate will be an absolute shit show and anyone watching it will lose several IQ points.

[GennGreymane]

If someone told me 10 years ago that these two were going to be the candidates I would've bet all my money on him/her talking huge bs. I think the debate will be an absolute shit show and anyone watching it will lose several IQ points.

Well Hillary has always been obvious and trump has ran before. Gonna need you to be a bit more specific on the bets

[Draco-Onis]

All Trump has to do is not drool over himself and the media will say he won, let's face it a Trump presidency would be the best thing to happen for ratings.

[lockedout]

Every 5 minutes, the director will order the cameraman to pan over to get his reaction, then instantly cut away because Cuban's still flipping Trump off.

Cuban said he would have run as Trump's VP.

[Deleted]

As a non american I have a question... what's the alignment of the host?