The second of three Presidential debates kicks off at 2PM NZ time.
The format is different this time, it’s more of a town hall style meeting with a combination of set questions from the moderators (ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper) and random impertinences from the audience.
Hillary Clinton is more in her element at these kind of events. A good listener, with a good grasp of issues, she can be relied on to come across as sympathetic and engaged. Donald Trump is far more used to deference and brown-nosing from the people he meets, not testing questions on the issues of the day. As a notoriously shouty bully, he’ll have to find a way to tone down his overbearing nature, while at the same time rehabilitating his tattered reputation.
If, as has been rumoured, he tries to deflect from his own sexism by pushing fantasies about Hillary Clinton’s hubby, he’ll go down in flames. The desperate right have tried floating the ‘Bill as rapist’ meme over the weekend, but it hasn’t stuck. Mainly because of the lack of evidence, but also because Bill Clinton is still more popular than either Hillary or the Donald.
This sort of attack generally fails, as anyone who has tried to point out John Key’s many faults over the last 8 years can attest.
So it should be a fascinating contest. Hillary has the election in the bag and the calls to dump Trump will only grow louder if he doesn’t ‘win’ this debate hands down. It could be that there won’t need to be a third debate or if it’s held it’ll be Clinton vs Pence.
Today’s bout is live on TVNZ’s Duke channel and I believe they will be streaming it via their website, here.
And here’s a taste of what it might look like:
UPDATE: Obama nails Trump’s tiny insecurity issue.
UPDATE 2: Live Stream
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