How are the debates gonna help Hillary?

[helpisontheway]

People already know the awful things Trump has said. They know he is clueless regarding national security. They know he has filed bankruptcy many times. They know he is a racist. They know he wants to divide us. Hell 60%~ish say he is not qualified and does not have the right temperament in any given poll. Yet, he either is leading or tied in the same poll. So what is the debate going to change. He will look like the same clueless dumb ass and she will be prepared. However, does it really matter??

[emulatorloo]

1. Because HRC will present herself, not the bullshit media cartoon version of HRC. Same with Trump

He'll present himself, not the bullshit media cartoon of him as a credible presidential candidate.

No his base doesn't give a shit. But persuadables will.

[asuhornets]

2. I agree...nt

[elleng]

3. Right, and if there are enough persuadables,

we'll survive.

[emulatorloo]

8. And if we get all of our voters out . . . Obama coalition will not let Trump anywhere near the WH

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. Persuadables vs. Deplorables - Kicks off at 10 EST, 9 CST

[Hoyt]

4. You have point. If he goes nuts and says deport Mexicans, reinstate slavery, nuke Middle East,

and worse, the Deplorables will love him more. The Deplorables are more than 50% in GOP, probably in the 90s.

We just have to hope enough decent people believe -- like Colin Powell -- that Trump is a national disaster and pull Clinton's lever.

I'm not sure how that will go in November, truthfully. I do believe a Trump Presidency will be a disaster.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

5. The goal is NOT to win over Trump supporters

It's to win over the people who aren't going to vote for Trump but aren't planning to vote for her either because they never gave her a chance due to all the smears and lies told about her.

[Imperialism Inc.]

6. The forum was very short and was widely panned.

The debates should be different. If he rambles on and gives non-sense answers like that in a longer debate I think he is toast.

[beaglelover]

7. Hopefully Hillary will clearly demonstrate that she can go deep on MANY issues unlike the

orange man. I really hope the debates seal the deal for her.

[bradla24]

9. Her support

I think it might be a chance to grab a few percentage of those people that are on the fence on voting for her. It seems like most of the decline in the recent polls is in her support not so much that trump has increased ...although there is some increase.

I agree that many people already know he is a fool. But maybe it reinforces it or even scares just a small percentage of republicans. That is what i am hoping for.

[Charles Bukowski]

10. HRC made the mistake of

focusing on Trump's bigotry when the real prime target is his ignorance and stupidity. Seriously, Trump is dumber than Sarah Palin, and it isn't close.

Trump's sit down with Matt Lauer showed quite clearly that the man hasn't learned a thing in the 15 months since his wretched campaign began, and his immense stupidity will be exposed even more in the first debate.

[brooklynite]

12. No, they don't...

Many voters don't engage until the debates; they're not watching Fox News or MSNBC's continuing political coverage, and they haven't watch more than a clip or 2 of Trump as he actually is.

[triron]

13. Do they?

Probably does not make a difference to his hardcore supporters. But hopefully lots of undecideds out there or people currently saying will vote for a 3rd party candidate but still relatively uninformed.

[donco]

14. I wish that

we could have competent mods.If we get mods that fold its going to be hard.

[inwiththenew]

15. He has 25+ years of being a buffoon in the public spotlight

Coupled with the long campaign I think a lot of this is already baked in. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know who he is.

It's going to more about her defining herself than trying to define him.

[Dem2]

16. Her convention bump was mostly due to a positive portrayal of Hillary

..that the media couldn't easily counteract with their hatred for her.

If she looks good and stands up to him, that's 100's of times more powerful than the moronic media banter where they seem incapable of speaking an entire sentence without "Trump" in it a few times.

[NewJeffCT]

17. agreed

afterwards, it's up to us to call out any talking heads that give the debates a biased/pro Trump spin - especially if it looks like "grading on a curve" is happening for him.