Trump, Clinton hope for ‘legacy moment’ at Monday’s debate

Presidential debates, like life, all come down to a series of moments.

Or, in the current news world that puts infotainment above all else, zingers!

Rest assured, you’ll be seeing plenty of retrospectives on debates of elections past starting today and certainly through the weekend. And all will consist on that one line — likely rehearsed — or image from thousands of hours of debate to choose from that were memorable, even game-changers, when it came to electing a president.

{mosads}That’s just how it works. We’re a nation with a populace that mostly likes instant gratification, fast food, empty calories, and easy to consume soundbites. And most people watching the debates will do so not so much to root for their guy or girl in Trump or Clinton, but to root against the other side.

If the past is any indication, the candidate who makes the biggest gaffe or exposes him or herself to a rhetorical haymaker, loses the game regardless of articulation of or position on policy matters.

So what were some of the most memorable SOTs (sound on tape) and VO (video only) of televised debates going back 56 years ago? Here are a few:

1960 (Kennedy-Nixon): Nixon’s sweat. Irony: the word back then was Nixon decidedly won the debate against his Democratic opponent … but only if you listened on the radio, which had been the only medium available until that point.

1976 (Ford-Carter): “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,” Ford declared.

Moderator Max Frankel of The New York Times responded thusly: “I’m sorry, what? . . . did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence in occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it’s a communist zone?”

Game. Set. Match.

1984 (Reagan-Mondale): “I want you to know also that I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” said Reagan. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

1988 (Quayle-Bentsen): “I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency,” declared Quayle, just 41 at the time. Answered Bentsen: “I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

2000 (Gore-George W. Bush, tie): The tie is between Gore’s repeated, audible, largely annoying sighs during the first debate between the two, and Gore walking up to Bush and standing over him less than one foot away in a town hall setting in the second.

Bush was prepared for the latter, however. Rob Portman — now an Ohio Senator — played the role of Gore in Bush’s mock debates. Talk about nailing it: Portman walked up to Bush and stared him down during the prep. Bush would kiss Portman on the forehead there, and proceed to give Gore a reassuring nod during the real thing.

2008 (McCain-Obama): McCain on about a pork-laden energy bill: “Who voted for it? You might never know — that one,” McCain said, gesturing at Obama.

Predictable howls from the left of racism followed, with Maureen Dowd accusing McCain in the New York Times of using “that one” as part of his plan to portray Obama as “the Other,” someone for whom “white Americans should not open the door.”

Of course, no one had ever remotely accused McCain of racism before, but on a big stage with a candidate the press was hell-bent on electing in Barack Obama, the ends always justifies the means.

2012 (Obama-Romney): Moderator Candy Crowley decided to fact-check Mitt Romney’s assertion that President Obama didn’t refer to the Benghazi consulate attack weeks earlier as a terrorist attack. Crowley corrected Romney, sending the GOP nominee into playing it safe for the rest of that debate and a third one of the season that followed.

Crowley would admit afterwards Romney “was right in the main.” She’s now retired from the industry.

So what will happen when Trump and Clinton take the stage?

The battle for best soundbite will be one waged with two very different strategies leading up to the event.

For Clinton, check out The Hill’s Amie Parnes with a must-read on Clinton preparation for multiple versions of Trump.

Hillary Clinton knows there are different sides to Donald Trump’s personality. She is preparing for all of them.

In closed-door sessions, the Democratic presidential nominee is prepping for their first presidential debate on Monday against a few different people playing the role of Trump.

The role-playing games with different surrogates are “for his multiple personalities,” one Clinton confidant said of the controversial GOP nominee.

For Clinton, this is consistent with the campaign as a whole since it began: Packaged, prepared, homogenized, scripted to a fault.

And when you hear Clinton deliver several zingers next week in attempt to win the soundbite war while trying to trigger Trump’s temper, do know it was carefully planned days and even weeks ago.

As for Trump, his debate prep isn’t changing from the primary season, which he’s always quick to remind everyone that he won every one of them (mostly from online polls from Trump-friendly outlets like Drudge and Newsmax, anyway):

‘I’m preparing for it like I prepared for the other debates,” Trump said. “I’ve seen people do so much prep work that when they got out there they can’t speak.”

It should be noted that Trump has never debated one-on-one before. He’s gone 1-on-11, 1-on-10 and 1-on-3, but never mano-y-mano. That means filling the time with more than just broad strokes around policy while stating how horrible everything is.

If Trump expects to win (a tie will even suffice), he better be prepared to go much deeper on actually policy and solutions than he has in prior debates and interviews. Because the bar for the Republican nominee is this: Show the American people you truly are prepared for the job while holding an agreeable temperament.

Zingers will be expected from Trump, so one or two of those of the organic variety won’t necessarily do the job as they have for other candidates in the past.

The biggest night of this insane 18-month campaign season is coming this Monday night at 9:00 pm ET. Zingers will be in the air.

And when the dust settles in a race now separated by a mere 1.1 points in the Real Clear Politics average, we may have a much better idea of who our next president is…

Or maybe not…

After all, even most Democrats will tell you Mitt Romney dominated his first debate with President Obama.  

Either way, get your popcorn and Pabst Blue Ribbon ready and join 100 million of your closest friends.

Because we’re about to witness something extraordinary.

What that “extraordinary” is, just like everything else in this election, is anybody’s guess.

Joe Concha is a media reporter for The Hill.

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