Zeoli: Debate Advice: Be Boring Or Give Us Great TV
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If I were coaching either of these candidates tonight I would offer this advice: Be boring. Don't engage. Make your pitch and put us to sleep with policy and details.
Of course, this advice goes against every conventional debate strategy I've ever offered. But this is a different election and a different night.
Tonight is the first time in the nation's history a man and a woman will debate each other in the general election. There's so much riding on that fact alone.
Many point to Obama's infamous "you're likable enough Hillary" line as an example of how men don't really need to be careful when debating women. Obama was a Democrat debating another Democrat. He wasn't held to the same standards of sexism the media holds Republicans. Trump shouldn't follow Obama's lead. No jabs at her likability. In fact, no jabs at all.
I know, I know. Boring. And this is television and we need drama. The problem is Trump's biggest liability right now is with women voters. They are going to be watching to see how he treats Hillary. They may be thinking of their bosses at work. Or their husbands. Or their ex-husbands. They will project how Trump talks to Hillary as if he's in the room. Anything less than total respect could backfire on him. That's why Joe Biden just smiled the entire time he debated Sarah Palin. He literally didn't say a single word. He just stood there and smiled. It was glorious.
Remember, the women voters who haven't come aboard the Trump train yet have their reasons. Maybe that reason is they don't like how he treats women. Or something irrelevant like policy. Assume it's the former. Win the votes of suburban female voters in the Philadelphia collar counties by treating her with the utmost respect. Address her as Madam Secretary and thank her for her decades of service which subtly reminds everyone of her age and also just what an establishment insider she truly is.
Hillary has a problem with non college educated white men. If she comes cross like a parochial school teacher lecturing or scolding it will make them cringe. She has to come across extremely likable. Some pundits have suggested she badger him over his support for the Iraq war. No way. Badgering sounds like badgering not fact checking and nobody likes to be badgered.
In the same way many women will project a Trump snipe at Hillary as a snipe at them, many men will get their backs up if she comes across as scolding him. She needs to win non college educated white men or she is toast.
This is new territory and debate coaches have their hands full trying to weave the balance between being likable and being a pushover. Which brings me to the other option. An all out cage match. Just let the jabs fly and let the insults pour down. Undecided voters don't like either of them despite Trump bringing his beautiful family on stage every night at the convention and Hillary pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into ads telling us Trump is a diabolical madman who will launch nuclear hellfire because he doesn't like a tweet. So battle away and at least give us an exciting 90 minutes. It's Monday night and no one gives a damn about the Falcons or the Saints. So give us a show. America is counting on you both.
