WASHINGTON – Perhaps never have Americans been as familiar with both presidential nominees as they are with the two on the debate stage Monday night.
Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump needs to spend much time introducing themselves to voters. Instead, they will seek to use this uninterrupted forum to sharpen attacks, provoke and knock the other off balance.
The result could be a battle of psychology as much as policy.
“Anything is possible,” said Elizabeth Ossoff, chair of the psychology department at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. “In the past, we might have been able to predict where the candidates were going to go in terms of their policy strengths . But I also think they know what people have been responding to, and the moderator is going to go to some of these character issues as well.”
Here are some hurdles they must overcome and strengths they can turn to in their last big chance to sway the unusually large chunk of the electorate that remains undecided.