Debate prep

Get your pizza, popcorn and drinking games ready. This debate is going to be rich, really rich. Just like Trump.

Which is why we’ll watch. Nobody would tune in to see Jeb Bush, Scott Walker or Marco Rubio.

No, it’s all Trump, all two hours: How far will he go? Who will he attack? Will he keep flinging insults at the other candidates? Or does he back down in a face-to-face confrontation?

The Donald lost his reality-TV show, so he turned the presidential race into a political reality-TV show.

The other nine candidates? All we care about is how they deal with Trump. Like Bush: Will he stumble, fumble and mumble like he has lately? He’s the goofiest presidential candidate since, well, his father.

The only two candidates who had the moxie to take on Trump, Rick Perry and Lindsay Graham, didn’t even make the cut. Coincidence?

Normally, it’s easy to know who won a debate. It has nothing to do with what they said, barring a real homer (“You’re no Jack Kennedy”) or a real boner (“Eastern Europe is not under Soviet domination”). The winner is the most comfortable, confident and commanding person on stage. Cool wins. Think JFK over Nixon, Reagan over Carter, Clinton over Bush, Bush over Gore and Obama over McCain.

But all rules are out with the Donald in the room. Tonight it’s all about him, and it comes down to this: Does two hours of his act, unlike a soundbite or two every day or so, wear thin? Does he look like a fool? Does somebody trump him (so to speak)? Does somebody look like a real President?

Me? I’m pulling a late night and watching every minute. Then staying up to see what Jon Stewart says on his last show.

There’s one public figure you can trust.

 

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Gary Pearce

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Debate prep

Get your pizza, popcorn and drinking games ready. This debate is going to be rich, really rich. Just like Trump.

Which is why we’ll watch. Nobody would tune in to see Jeb Bush, Scott Walker or Marco Rubio.

No, it’s all Trump, all two hours: How far will he go? Who will he attack? Will he keep flinging insults at the other candidates? Or does he back down in a face-to-face confrontation?

The Donald lost his reality-TV show, so he turned the presidential race into a political reality-TV show.

The other nine candidates? All we care about is how they deal with Trump. Like Bush: Will he stumble, fumble and mumble like he has lately? He’s the goofiest presidential candidate since, well, his father.

The only two candidates who had the moxie to take on Trump, Rick Perry and Lindsay Graham, didn’t even make the cut. Coincidence?

Normally, it’s easy to know who won a debate. It has nothing to do with what they said, barring a real homer (“You’re no Jack Kennedy”) or a real boner (“Eastern Europe is not under Soviet domination”). The winner is the most comfortable, confident and commanding person on stage. Cool wins. Think JFK over Nixon, Reagan over Carter, Clinton over Bush, Bush over Gore and Obama over McCain.

But all rules are out with the Donald in the room. Tonight it’s all about him, and it comes down to this: Does two hours of his act, unlike a soundbite or two every day or so, wear thin? Does he look like a fool? Does somebody trump him (so to speak)? Does somebody look like a real President?

Me? I’m pulling a late night and watching every minute. Then staying up to see what Jon Stewart says on his last show.

There’s one public figure you can trust.

 

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Gary Pearce

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