All day long the mantra has been the same: In Monday’s debate the bar is lower for Donald Trump—all he has to do is appear plausibly presidential. Commentators on the right and left have all hit the same note, arguing that Trump needs to ditch the feisty tabloid style that he brought to many of the Republican primary debates and instead present himself with a veneer of gravitas. Voters, we’re told, want reassurance he isn’t a crazy man who can’t be trusted with the keys to the nuclear arsenal. Hillary Clinton has staked her campaign on the claim that Trump is unfit, beyond the pale. And so, the argument goes, Trump wins if he just seems like a normal person.
Maybe. But Trump has tried on the reasonable-man persona before, and he hasn’t been particularly compelling. When he’s playing at being a regular-style candidate, he just doesn’t seem to be having much fun. He ends up being—dare I say it?—low energy.
I suspect Trump has a better chance this evening if he comes out, not—as has been predicted by one and all—as the newly tamed, dispassionate candidate, but as an unapologetic pugilist, throwing knuckle-punches. Hillary is shrill and humorless. If it is the funny, roguishly charming Trump who shows up tonight, the contrast will benefit the Donald.
It’s a riskier strategy for the Republican nominee, for all the reasons the pundits have offered. But there’s a lot more potential upside if he lands snarky barbs than there is if he plays it safe as a plain-old plausible, credible candidate. Trump didn’t get where he is by pretending to be Mr. Civility. I doubt that trying to play that role now is a winning debate strategy.
