Second Presidential Debate To Be Held Tonight
The second presidential debate will be held at Hofstra University on Long Island tonight. It will be a town hallformat, with an audience of likely but undecided voters chosen by Gallup. The moderator will be CNN's Candy Crowley.
President Obama is no doubt getting a lot of advice about the tone and style he should use. No one (except Republicans)thinks he should repeat his listless performance from the first debate. Some people are surely telling him to huff and puff likethe Big Bad Wolf and Joe Biden, but the format (talking to someone in the audience) doesn't lend itself well to that. Also,it is not his style. Biden is the kind of guy one can imagine saying: "My mother told me never to interrupt someone who isspeaking--unless he is lying through his teeth." That's not Obama, though.
Nevertheless, being passive again would be a disaster for Obama. Probably the bestpublic advice is from Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor. Here it is in a nutshell.
