Source: Time

By Zeke J Miller / Hempstead, N.Y. @ZekeJMiller&Philip Elliott

Perhaps you can’t wing your way to the White House.

At the first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, authenticity proved to be no substitution for preparation. Strong words faded in the face of solid experience. And, in a campaign that has seen norms shattered, there was something comforting about at least one candidate behaving in expected ways — and speaking in coherent, complete sentences.

The meeting came at a crucial moment, with six weeks before Election Day. The night’s potential impact had the senior advisers to both campaigns losing sleep in recent days. Only Clinton’s should feel comfortable as they crawl under the covers. What remained unclear is whether either candidate had changed voters’ minds or given them permission to firmly link up with a candidate they already leaned toward. Even Trump admitted Clinton is a governing-focused nerd, and Trump’s victory in the Republican primaries was rooted in his eagerness to buck traditional norms for political speech.

The Republican nominee began the debate on the Hofstra University campus in Hempstead, N.Y., as disciplined a debater as he has been, delivering on-message lines about being a candidate who can change Washington. But during the course of almost two hours, the billionaire’s self-control faltered. “Wrong. Wrong. Wrong,” he sputtered into the microphone as his hands firmly gripped the lectern. Confronted with his misstatements on the Iraq War and President Obama’s birthplace, his refusal to release his tax returns and his embrace of a controversial policing practice, all he could do was grimace and shake his head.

Trump took the stage with a single goal: to leave voters more convinced he could handle the role of President. But more familiar in the role of the one doing the name-calling and lobbing the attacks, Trump found himself on the defensive before a television audience rivaling the Super Bowl.

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