Joseph R. Biden Jr.
KELLY The former vice president should aggressively set the record straight armed with facts and outside validators, and make clear that Trump’s motivation is simple: He’s scared of running against Biden and is trying to pick a different nominee. Biden should then quickly pivot back to what voters love and believe about him: that he’s fighting for working families and has a record of delivering on issues like health care, while Donald Trump has failed these very same workers and families. A kitchen table contrast with Biden is deadly for Trump.
O’DONNELL Biden needs to answer the question of how his son got the position in Ukraine carefully, but stay on offense if he is to escape having this rub off on him more than it has. If the press drills down, and he appears weak, then others might pile on or use it to frame Biden as part of the past they’re attempting to move on from. His hope has to be to keep pivoting this to impeachment.
Elizabeth Warren
POTTER Warren has managed to win the inside track on the “change” message in a primary where voters’ top concern is beating Donald Trump, and this debate is a chance to tie those threads together through the lens of corruption. While a process-heavy discussion of impeachment will likely be unhelpful to her, Warren could do herself a world of good by packaging the known facts surrounding Ukraine as an easy-to-understand tale of Washington influence-peddling.
FINNEY Clearly the vision Warren is campaigning on is more popular than is being given credit, but she still has to keep making the case that her ideas can win in a general election. Her strategy ought to be to continue to convince voters that she can be the commander-in-chief, steward of our economy, and that these ideas can win.
Bernie Sanders
DUNN Follow the old rule of show, don’t tell. Senator Sanders demonstrates that he is all vim and vigor by acting that way and not talking about it. Expect him to try and act the same as he has in every previous debate.
KELLY First of all, I hope that Senator Sanders is healthy and fully recovers soon. But this is a real issue. Certainly, he’ll need to show energy throughout the three-hour debate and make a strong case for himself, remaining engaged throughout. But ultimately, he is 78 years old and had a heart attack. I don’t think there’s a tactical silver bullet for the debate stage that can change those facts or demonstrate that he’s healthy enough to be president of the United States.
Pete Buttigieg
O’DONNELL The November debate will be too late to have a break out moment. He has to have a moment early in this debate where he commands the stage and gets the narrative moving in his direction. The problem for him has been identity and message. He needs to find both. All the money in the world can’t buy that. He also needs to have a moment where he shows competitive advantage over one of the front-runners — Warren or Biden — by taking them on over an issue where he has a real different message. He should not waste time arguing with Beto O’Rourke over guns. So if he doesn’t differentiate himself, he’ll be on the stage for the rest of the debates, but will be out of the media conversation and out of contention.
Kamala Harris
POTTER Her success depends on getting multiple opportunities to deliver sharp, simple-to-understand critiques of President Trump. Harris’s greatest success on the debate stage came from creating the impression she would badly outclass Trump in a general election debate, but she has generally been unable to build on that. Her campaign’s goal should be to remind voters of her unique skills in this area, perhaps on an under-addressed issue such as reproductive rights.
Cory Booker
O’DONNELL His only lane is a pragmatist, more moderate approach to policy. He can never beat Warren and Sanders on their agenda, so trying to position himself more in line with Biden has to be his approach. What does that mean for the debate? He has to take on Sanders or Warren and prove that his approach is better and take on Biden and prove he would be a better president than Biden.
Amy Klobuchar
DUNN Senator Klobuchar has already been performing very, very well — but it is not moving the needle. That’s a hard position to be in. Her best bet is to draw contrast with Senator Warren and try to use Warren’s momentum to build her own.
Tom Steyer
KALL He should try to take credit for the impeachment inquiry since he spent so much time and money on this process. He was at the forefront of this initiative before most, but he can’t let this issue singularly define his candidacy and debate talking points.
Julián Castro
FINNEY He tried to have these breakout moments at each of the debates. He ought to try to have a breakout moment that is not about attacking someone else but is about making the case that he is the right person for this moment. We still haven’t seen that from him.
Andrew Yang
KALL He needs to show the audience that he can do more than deliver quippy sound bytes and engage in campaign giveaway gimmicks. He’s been successful in directly attacking President Trump, but the debate is a good opportunity for him to soberly lay out his agenda and political philosophies more clearly.
Beto O’Rourke
POTTER I would not be surprised to see O’Rourke try to generate a sense of “us-against-the-world” among his supporters and decrying traditional political expectations that point toward an early exit. Beto O’Rourke is best when he’s in the role of the rebel with a cause and needs to leave Ohio with voters believing his voice is urgent and necessary once more.
Tulsi Gabbard
FINNEY She needs to act like a Democrat! I say this as someone who at onetime was a fan of hers years ago when she first was elected to Congress. I don’t even recognize this person. Instead of whining and complaining, tell us what you are for. Don’t just attack others.