# Is there going to be one or more Clinton-Trump debates? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 2, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577 "2016-08-02T19:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/41 "2016-08-03T19:40:49Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Because having Trump stay on message and not blow up like a big bear is going to be really, really tough. Christ, that’s an understatement. Look, I’m not saying keeping the big jackass from being a jackass is going to be easy. I wouldn’t want that job. But… well, let me use a sports analogy; it’s the Super Bowl, you’re losing 24-17, and you’re at your own 32 yard line with seconds left. Do you try a Hail Mary or hold on to the ball? Obviously, you have your quarterback air it out and hope for the best. You wouldn’t do that in the first quarter of a 0-0 game because it’s stupid; you run your playbook. But if you’re losing, and there’s no other way to win, you might as well heave it up there. It probably won’t work, but it might, and nothing else will. If Clinton is leading by five or six points on September 26, what the hell else are they going to do? > [@](#): > > … sometimes you just have to watch the train go crashing off the cliff in slow motion to get the full effect of the disaster. That doesn’t quite capture the full effect of a Trump campaign. Trump’s campaign is headed for a scene where a train of dynamite shipments collides with a herd of genetically engineered dinosaurs that somehow escaped their restraints and stampeded onto the trestle, and the TNT cars and dinosaurs, roaring and flailing their legs and tails, fall off the side of the Grand Canyon and plunge into the SharpCo Ninja Products Factory, and THEN there’s a thunderous explosion that flings nunchuks and debris and ninja stars and bricks and swords and twisted train wreck parts and dinosaur bodies right into Saint Agnes’s Saintly Home For Incredibly Sweet And Precociously Gifted Children and it just happens to be the day that five hundred really nice couples showed up to take a cute little orphan home, and the orphanage explodes and there’s bodies and flaming wreckage everywhere and people have ninja stars in their foreheads and the only surviving orphans are crying because it’s the first time they ever saw a dinosaur and it’s just a severed head. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/42 "2016-08-03T19:42:03Z")
I think Trump will not debate, BUT he will not “drop out” or in any way simply fail to appear (which is perilously close to “fail to perform,” with its nasty connotations). Trump will not debate but it will be SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT, most likely Hillary’s. She or the Democrats or the weather or Obama (or Obama_care_) or God or the Russians or someone \*\*else \*\*will prevent him from debating. Something will happen that will make it IMPOSSIBLE for him to attend and still be Trump (A Legend in His Own Mind). ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/43 "2016-08-03T19:43:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > …snip… > That doesn’t quite capture the full effect of a Trump campaign. Trump’s campaign is headed for a scene where a train of dynamite shipments collides with a herd of genetically engineered dinosaurs that somehow escaped their restraints and stampeded onto the trestle, and the TNT cars and dinosaurs, roaring and flailing their legs and tails, fall off the side of the Grand Canyon and plunge into the SharpCo Ninja Products Factory, and THEN there’s a thunderous explosion that flings nunchuks and debris and ninja stars and bricks and swords and twisted train wreck parts and dinosaur bodies right into Saint Agnes’s Saintly Home For Incredibly Sweet And Precociously Gifted Children and it just happens to be the day that five hundred really nice couples showed up to take a cute little orphan home, and the orphanage explodes and there’s bodies and flaming wreckage everywhere and people have ninja stars in their foreheads and the only surviving orphans are crying because it’s the first time they ever saw a dinosaur and it’s just a severed head. Wow. I’m not into disaster movies, but I’d pay big bucks to see this. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/44 "2016-08-03T19:52:08Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Why? I don’t see the downside, unless something changes really dramatically and he’s winning. > > 1. Assuming Clinton continues to maintain a small lead, the debate is to the advantage of the person who’s losing. They are late in the race and there’s no difference between losing 320-218 or losing 538-0. You might as well try something that could swing things in your favor, and a debate is that. > > 2. I simply do not buy the notion Clinton would stomp him. Of course she is vastly superior in her command of the issues, to an extent unprecedented in the history of Presidential elections. That is not, however, necessarily relevant. What matters is looking and sounding Presidential. The expectations for Trump in a debate will be abysmal; people will be surprised if he shows up with his jacket on forward and doesn’t try to eat his podium. If he can stay on message, get in a zinger, and just sound confident and controlled, he can win the debate, even if his ideas are vacuous. > > 3. Backing out of the debate would unquestionably lose his votes. Some devoted Trumpists will not care because it was unfair! but some voters would definitely see it as cowardly. He won’t WIN any votes or glory by ducking out. This. In a “normal” debate, with moderators who have balls, Trump would be a charcoal briquette. But these aren’t “normal” debates. All Trump has to do is go into all-out attack mode, ignoring all of Clinton’s responses and just throwing all sorts of random shit at her. That way his camp spins it as a win, and they ditch the rest of the debates. That gives them a month of spin on the attacks and free publicity. Clinton will have to be very prepared for this tactic if she expects to get away from the “first” debate even remotely cleanly. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/45 "2016-08-03T19:53:09Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Clinton however can go after specific things he’s said, and can also go after policies that he and the Republican party support. She has a lot more room to attack him and that should help her a lot. I wouldn’t say she’ll stomp him, but just because he did well in the Republican debates doesn’t mean that he’ll do well in the general election debates. This but in a different matter. Undermine Trump’s support. Point out how he’s been on both sides of every issue. He’s been pro-choice to scare off the social conservatives. Anti-war to scare off the neo-conservatives. It’s not that you need to make their support of him weak…it’s that you need to try to peel off a small amount and make them stay home. Hell, thank him for his donations to Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. Maybe shake up some of the hardcore anti-Hillary types. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/46 "2016-08-03T22:22:40Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It wouldn’t be worth the e-paper it’s printed on. But I think a Trump dropout is a real possibility if not probability. He seems to be under enormous physical and mental stress and he seems to have reached his limit. I think that doctor who said he is in the best shape in the history of the universe will sign off on declaring him unfit for electoral combat. I just read that the RNC honchos are meeting to discuss what they’ll do if he drops out. You may be the thread winner. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/47 "2016-08-10T01:16:58Z")
Today’s Washington Post: [Why Donald Trump might not debate Hillary Clinton](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/09/why-donald-trump-might-not-debate-hillary-clinton/?tid=pm_pop_b) In a nutshell: > [@](#): > > Still, it’s apparent that Trump might very well skip one or more debates anyway — becoming the first candidate to do so since 1972. For a few reasons: > > 1. He’s not very good at them > …\… > 2. He can be baited, and Clinton is good at it > …\… > 3. He’s already hinted strongly that he won’t > > Trump has already laid the groundwork for declining the debates. He recently tweeted that the dates are all wrong and suggested that Clinton’s campaign somehow rigged the dates — just like Sanders’s campaign argued in the Democratic primary — to make sure nobody watches. > > As our own Philip Bump wrote, this doesn’t make much sense — especially given that the debates were scheduled long before the NFL schedule was released. But either way, it’s clear what Trump is doing here. And actually the bogusness of his complaint makes it even clearer. > > There’s also the fact that Trump has repeatedly threatened to and in a couple of cases actually followed through on skipping primary debates. Besides that March 21 debate — he cited a conflicting event — he skipped a Jan. 28 debate when he was feuding with Fox News and Megyn Kelly. I still think he’s going to bail. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/48 "2016-08-10T01:19:47Z")
It’s essentially this for Trump: A) Debate Hillary, and have a 20% chance that he will do well and pull closer in the polls, maybe even take the lead - but also face an 80% chance that Hillary will prevail and make his deficit in the polls even worse, or, B) Don’t debate Hillary, and simply languish in the polls, trailing Hillary as is. This is akin to a Hail Mary situation in football. Throw the ball downfield, and you’ll run a high risk of losing all four of your downs and turning over the ball on possessions, or getting intercepted, or …don’t throw the Hail Mary, and simply lose anyway. Trump’s best bet is to start furiously preparing for the debates as if his life depends on them. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/49 "2016-08-10T01:28:45Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Trump’s best bet is to start furiously preparing for the debates as if his life depends on them. Has he ever furiously prepared for _anything_ in his entire life? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/50 "2016-08-15T18:30:19Z")
Giving this a bump in case anyone else wants to vote. Many developments since the last post, a mere six days ago. If you vote, “no,” please state what you think his [del]excuse[/del] reason for bailing will be. I believe he will cancel because the media will rig the debates in favor of Hillary. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/51 "2016-08-15T18:43:39Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > This is akin to a Hail Mary situation in football. Throw the ball downfield, and you’ll run a high risk of losing all four of your downs and turning over the ball on possessions, or getting intercepted, or > > …don’t throw the Hail Mary, and simply lose anyway. > > Trump’s best bet is to start furiously preparing for the debates as if his life depends on them. To extend the analogy… If you’re the Republican party (team), there may be a very good chance that if you run the hail mary play, your running backs will get concussions, and your front line will blow out their knees, rendering half your team injured for the next season. Your best bet may be to simply take a knee and concede the game, leaving your players healthier for next season. And I concur - there is no way that Trump has either the ability or inclination to do any preparation for a debate. He already knows he’s right, and he knows everything there is to know. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/52 "2016-08-15T19:14:49Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Has he ever furiously prepared for _anything_ in his entire life? OK, how about show up on the day like a kid who has an oral report on WW2 due but never cracked open a book, and furiously tries to bluff his way through the whole thing based on what he remembers from watching the Captain America Movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/53 "2016-08-15T20:00:10Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > All of that seems to ignore the debates he’s already performed in. I hate the guy, but even I have to admit he does reasonably well in a debate, especially in a short-answer debate format that favors name-calling over substantive policy explanations. \ I’ve heard several times that Trump’s numbers actually went down after his appearance on stage during debates, not up. Here is one citation that supports that. [FiveThirtyEight on Trump Debate Performance](http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/fox-news-republican-debate-detroit-presidential-election-2016/) > [@](#): > > As for Trump … well, the conventional wisdom, like a snake eating its own tail, is that Trump is always judged to have done poorly in debates but winds up being steady or moving up in polls instead. That’s actually not true, though. His numbers wobbled a bit after the first debate in Cleveland; he faded by several points after clashing with Jeb Bush in South Carolina; and he finished toward the lower end of his polling range on Super Tuesday, although he still had a good night overall. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > “Trainable”? Do you think Trump would actually let anyone train/coach him before the debates? And if he did, would he stick to the guidelines that were given to him? As I recall, he doesn’t even read a teleprompter very well. Agreed. I’m wondering more and more whether he’s so wildly off script on purpose (the ol’ throwing the race ploy) or he’s completely off his nut. It’s incomprehensible that he could be this idiotic accidentally. > [@RickJay](#): > > That doesn’t quite capture the full effect of a Trump campaign. Trump’s campaign is headed for a scene where a train of dynamite shipments collides with a herd of genetically engineered dinosaurs that somehow escaped their restraints and stampeded onto the trestle, and the TNT cars and dinosaurs, roaring and flailing their legs and tails, fall off the side of the Grand Canyon and plunge into the SharpCo Ninja Products Factory, and THEN there’s a thunderous explosion that flings nunchuks and debris and ninja stars and bricks and swords and twisted train wreck parts and dinosaur bodies right into Saint Agnes’s Saintly Home For Incredibly Sweet And Precociously Gifted Children and it just happens to be the day that five hundred really nice couples showed up to take a cute little orphan home, and the orphanage explodes and there’s bodies and flaming wreckage everywhere and people have ninja stars in their foreheads and the only surviving orphans are crying because it’s the first time they ever saw a dinosaur and it’s just a severed head. I tried to read this to my family and couldn’t squeeze the words out between fits of laughter. Well done. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/54 "2016-08-16T17:15:00Z")
No idea if Trump will go through with the debates, but I sure hope so. My daughter is a senior at Washington U. in St. Louis, where the second, town hall style, debate will take place on October 9. She just found out this morning that her application to be in the student volunteer pool has been accepted, so she really wants it to happen now. Most likely she’ll end up ushering or directing visitors on campus, but her dream is to work backstage or in the green rooms. She’ll get her assignment in a few weeks when she’s back on campus. We’re very excited for her. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/55 "2016-09-05T13:56:07Z")
It’s getting closer to debate time. Who believes Trump will attend ALL of the Presidential debates? I can still see him bailing on all of them with some lame excuse or other, but I can also see him attending one of them and then [del]crying[/del] whining _foul_, and skipping the rest. Only he’ll call it “boycotting,” as if there is some principle behind it. Trump has nothing to gain from debating and much to lose. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/56 "2016-09-05T14:15:18Z")
Wednesday is their first town hall debate. Friday is when Trump’s rape case starts pre-trial hearings. Another banner week for DJT? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/57 "2016-09-05T16:51:59Z")
I believe Trump will absolutely do the first one, and contrary to popular opinion, he could do surprisingly well. The advantage goes to the candidate with lower expectations, which would clearly be Trump. People assume that Trump is going to be the same Trump that we saw in the debates, but I’m not so sure. I think Ailes is trying to prepare him to be aggressive without engaging into the petulant child routine that we saw in some of his latter appearances. The question is, what happens after the first debate? If Trump wins, does he try to say “I won and I’m tired of these debates,” or does he come back again? Or if he loses, especially if he loses badly, does he try to cut losses? I think Trump will do the debates because Trump probably needs them more in order to win. But he may not have to do all three. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/58 "2016-09-05T17:00:14Z")
'Course, if he walks up to the podium and staples his pecker to it, someone will be down here telling us what a brilliant debate tactic that was! Hillary sure wasn’t expecting _that_! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/59 "2016-09-05T17:12:57Z")
I don’t think Trump can win with being a shock jock – that was a good tactic with angry, uneducated conservatives. They’re both going for large numbers of ignorant voters and disengaged voters but they’re probably a little more mature and they will demand a little more than jokes about penis sizes. Moreover, being too harsh against a woman, even one who’s broadly disliked, would not play well on camera. Ailes is probably telling him to be aggressive, bring up Bengazi, bring up emails, and redirect questions about everything else to Bengazi and emails. But he’s probably advising him to lay off the penis jokes. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577/60 "2016-09-05T19:25:35Z")
> **[Trump: Only natural disasters will keep me from debating Clinton](https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-will-debate-clinton-2016-227739)** > > "I expect to do all three,” he says of the debates. OK, so this… **Trump: Only natural disasters will keep me from debating Clinton** So, I guess, as of today, he is down for all three, the choice of moderators is not an issue, and, by golly, he’s gonna do it. What does it mean? Haven’t the foggiest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-going-to-be-one-or-more-clinton-trump-debates/761577.md?page=4)