Joe HonickJoe Honick
By the time you read this, reams of copy will have been dedicated to the Presidential debates. It remains to be seen whether anything new can be said or written about the forthcoming debates or candidates' strategies, but one thing remains true, just it did with the Kennedy-Nixon debates: appearance and performance often overpower experience.

Few listening and viewing this time around remember the night of November 26, 1960, when a young Senator John F. Kennedy faced off against incumbent Richard Nixon. According to reports at the time, the more academic Nixon appeared wan and pale, even a little sweaty, while Kennedy was tan, handsome and relaxed. As Time reported, “by the end of the evening, he (Kennedy) was a star.”

Certainly, content will be high on the scale of importance this time, but every bit as important will be the performance itself. On one hand, the tough and experienced former First Lady and Secretary of State will be targeted as untrustworthy and hard to like, but also as the first female major party candidate.

It remains to be seen how Hillary Clinton’s advisors will have her appear in a way that doesn’t emphasize age or gender while stressing her strong presence, experience, confidence and bearing, in the face of her opponent, a bombastic, thrice married businessman who has never held public office and who has broken just about every rule in an unscripted campaign, referring to the competition in ways like one schoolboy shouts at another.

During the monumental Kennedy-Nixon debates, radio listeners thought Nixon had won. TV viewers overwhelmingly saw Kennedy as the winner. Today, while relatively few will hear the debates on radio, millions will see the drama unfold right before their eyes. Will Donald Trump wear his ever present baseball cap almost like a window sticker to top off his TV costume, or simply appear with his carefully coiffed yellow curls, one of the amusingly referenced aspects of a 70-year-old man?

While most polls suggest each candidate has pretty much established his/her voting blocs, the debates could force both Trump and Clinton to be more presidential, and it would surprise, even shock Trump’s followers if he were to appear any less tough in the face of his female Democrat opponent. His nonstop bluster has appealed to his supporters as a toughness needed in the White House.

Were Trump to assume the domineering, name-calling stance he’s used up to the now, some experts have suggested Clinton could “blow his mind” if she waited a couple of beats to respond, smile and say something to the effect of, “I have sincere sympathy for this man who has to act this way.” Such an action, according to these election veterans, would either push Trump to still more invective or push him off his track. It was, after all, unexpected action by a smiling and handsome Ronald Reagan who walked from the debate rostrum across the stage to shake hands with a stunned Jimmy Carter, Reagan looking and acting as if he already “owned” the election.

Missing this time around so far is any discussion of how the debates will deal with each candidate’s potentially legal liabilities.

In Trump’s case, he remains under indictment for fraud over his so called “university” that had to drop the term and has been alleged to be a total scam. However, the court trial for Trump and company conveniently will not take place until the day after the election. Little has been in the media since the initial allegations were announced and the trial day was set.

However, Clinton has been the virtually daily target of both media and Congressional commentary, questions and reports regarding her use of private laptops in the Benghazi situation and thousands of allegedly missing e-mails.

Almost as important as the contenders will be the stellar media representatives from NBC, Fox News, CNN and ABC, a top-shelf cast of moderates selected by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates. The first debate set for September 26 at New York’s Hofstra University will be moderated by NBC Nightly anchor Lester Holt and will feature CNN’s Anderson Cooper, ABC’s chief global correspondent Martha Raddatz. Raddatz will moderate the second debate scheduled for October 9 at Washington University in St, Louis. Fox News’ Chris Wallace will moderate the third and final debate at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on October 19, just two weeks before election day.

However, as the song goes: “Another opening, another show” is only days away, and the opening act for both contenders and the nation could not be more anticipated.

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Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island, WA.