SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — It’s a bit redundant that the Republican presidential candidates are flocking this week to the greater Los Angeles area, the entertainment capital of the world, for their second televised debate.
Are we not already entertained?
No matter what you think of Donald Trump as a politician, his mastery of the intrinsically theatrical nature of 21st-century campaigning has been nothing short of spellbinding.
Not since primetime television in 2008 had to figure out what to make of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have the worlds of politics and entertainment collided to the extent that we’ve seen this summer, ever since Trump first descended an escalator in midtown Manhattan and kicked off one of the most unlikely front-running presidential bids in memory.
Whatever they think of him, Americans can’t keep their eyes off of Trump. By extension, the race for the Republican nomination has served as more compelling fare than all the summer’s superhero blockbusters combined (no disrespect meant to “Ant-Man”).
A record-breaking 24 million people tuned in to the first GOP debate on Fox News last month. On Wednesday, Trump will share the stage with 10 other candidates, many of whom appear determined not to cede the spotlight to him entirely this time around — which means the second Republican face-off could end up being even more captivating than the first.
From the way that CNN’s promotional team is billing the event — complete with a two-day countdown clock and WWF-style graphics — you’d think the GOP contenders were prepared not only to exchange a few well-crafted barbs but to engage in the kind of melee where real blood gets spilled.
The cable news network wants to facilitate the latest round of the fight that its audience can’t get enough of, and it may not take much to do so.
With Trump holding on to his lead in national and early state polls, a general consensus has emerged in many circles that the only way to knock him down a peg is to go right back at him with the kinds of put-downs and insults he uses to such searing effect.
Well — former Texas Gov. Rick Perry tried that, and now he’s settling into retirement back in the Lone Star State. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has since picked up the torch, and he seems to be doing about as well as Perry did in terms of scoring points with the electorate via attacks on Trump.
Thus far, it’s proven impossible to beat Trump at his own game.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina — who along with Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been making inroads in New Hampshire — is the one candidate who appears to have benefited from engaging with Trump on his level, and the expectation is that she’ll be the most eager to try and take him down a notch on Wednesday.
But then there’s retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has shown only brief interest in challenging the front-runner before returning to his usual, far more subdued style.
That relaxed approach, the antithesis of Trump’s ceaseless blustering, has worked wonders for Carson, who trailed the New York real estate mogul by a mere 4 points in the latest CBS News/New York Times national poll.
Perhaps the surest way to challenge Trump is to find a balance between overplaying one’s hand and folding at every turn. If that’s so, then the key lies in not getting rattled — a skill that the best actors and politicians tend to share.
Since the debate is being held at Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Library, we can probably expect even more references to the Gipper than are usually heard at Republican debates (which is saying something).
Though their public demeanors and applicable experience could scarcely be more different, Trump, like Reagan, enjoyed a high-profile career in entertainment before he entered politics. The current GOP front-runner understands the nexus between the two worlds in the same way the nation’s 40th president did — and he’s been using that awareness to his full advantage.
Once-promising contenders like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), meanwhile, have struggled mightily with finding themselves supporting players in a movie where they’d each expected to be the leading man.
If they, or any of the other GOP challengers to Trump, hope to get their names back onto the presidential campaign marquee, Wednesday’s showdown just a few miles up the road from Hollywood may offer the last, best chance to do so.
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