The Sunday before the first presidential debate of 2016 was filled with analysis and speculation about how the candidates were going to perform. It was the same on CNN’s Inside Politics were their panel touted Hillary Clinton’s ability to debate. Host John King played a clip of Clinton leaving Senator Bernie Sanders speechless after slamming his questions about her speaking fees as a smear, saying it was a clue about how Monday’s debate might turn out.
CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson seemed almost in awe of Clinton’s counter of Sanders, noting his lack of a response wasn’t good for him. “One of the things Hillary Clinton does well in these debates, she often knows the record of the other person better than they know their own record,” she stated, praising Clinton, “And, she's able to bring something out in these debates in a tack that we haven't heard before.”
Henderson seemed to almost coach Clinton on how to answer questions about her e-mails. “I think on the e-mail thing, she's going to have to answer the question like it's the first time she's hearing it,” she noted. She went on to explain that a highly rehearsed answer to those questions could hurt her campaign, just like Michael Dukakis was hurt by a practiced answer to a question about his position on the death penalty.
Expounding on Henderson’s point about the Clinton’s answers to e-mail questions, New York Times National Correspondent Jonathan Martin seemed almost shocked by how much people don’t trust Clinton. “The mistrust of her is remarkable, and we see it in the polling,” he pointed out, sounding dismayed, “But after you talk to voters it's just incredible the degree to which people believe she's dishonest.”
Molly Ball, Politics Writer for The Atlantic, concluded that Clinton had two paths she could travel during the debate:
I mean, this is a really interesting choice for her. Of, does she want to radically remake her image, be warm and fuzzy, convince America for the first time ever that she is this wonderfully likeable person, or does she double down on her strengths while acknowledging that that's a weakness.
Ball finally settled on the latter, noting, “And I think that's a much more effective route for her. You know, on the e-mails she gets lost in the weeds and gets defensive and that's a real trap for her.”