Can Trump Avoid Meandering Rambles and Low Blows?

Dan Balz: “Trump is often graded on the curve in debates. He gets credit for his ability to dominate a debate stage. That was particularly the case in his 2016 debates against Republican rivals. His missteps, distortions, lies and boorishness are often written off as if they are to be expected.”

“His performance against Biden in Atlanta was hardly impressive. He issued a buffet of misstatements and flat-out lies that left fact-checkers exhausted. He escaped harsher critiques because Biden’s performance was so startlingly weak. Biden is now gone, and the spotlight will be on Trump in ways it wasn’t before, with more attention paid to his coherence or lack thereof as a candidate.”

“A series of tests confront Trump heading into Tuesday’s event, about self-discipline, knowledge, his age and acuity, his overall temperament, and how he deals with the issues of race and gender. For the past six weeks, he’s often been failing those tests.”