Source: BBC
This is it – the final stretch of the US presidential race.
After a campaign that started back in the innocent days of 2015, we’re now just six weeks away from the election.
The first of three presidential debates takes place on Monday night – and there is plenty to look out for as the candidates edge ever closer to each other in the polls.
What’s at stake?
By Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter:
The debates are the last, best chance for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to make their case to the nation.
Neither candidate will be able to command the attention of the American public the way they will in the three upcoming presidential debates. And no debate will have as large an audience, or do as much to shape public perceptions of the candidates, as this first one.
There’s a good chance Monday night’s affair will break the record of 80 million Americans who watched incumbent Jimmy Carter face-off against Ronald Reagan in 1980.
In an election cycle that’s measured in months and even years, this debate gives Americans a real, unscripted opportunity to see how the would-be presidents might handle the intense stresses of the Oval Office. It’s the mother of all job interviews.
There’ll be six segments of about 15 minutes, each on a different topic. Themoderator is NBC anchor Lester Holt; the venue is Hofstra University on Long Island, New York; the start time is 21:00 local time (01:00 GMT).
At the start of each segment, the two candidates will have two minutes each to respond, then they will respond to each other.
Three of the topics already announced, and selected by Holt, are: America’s Direction; Achieving Prosperity and Securing America, which risk sounding more like the slogans of banks than debate topics.
Three more questions related to events in the news this week will also be scheduled.
(There are no breaks during the 90 minutes, so a strategic pre-debate bathroom visit is advised).
Categories: Debate, The Muslim Times, USA