Amanda Sakuma
GEN
Published in
Sep 29, 2020

--

What to watch out for in tonight’s presidential debate. If you’re hoping either Joe Biden or Donald Trump will emerge as the clear winner of tonight’s first 2020 presidential debate, it’s best to temper your expectations, writes Hal Hansen, an expert in presidential campaign rhetoric.

Hansen predicts, based on their previous debate performances, that neither candidate will stick to a clear or coherent strategy. Even if they head into the evening with what they believe will be a winning game plan, both are notoriously terrible at taking performance tips from advisors, Hansen says, and have a tendency to memorably veer off-script. Instead, in his…

--

--

Amanda Sakuma
GEN
Writer for

Editor/writer. Words in GEN, The Atlantic, Glamour, The Intercept, MSNBC, NBC News, NYT, Vice, Vox, and more.