--- description: The trick is to combine substance with showmanship title: What Hillary Can Learn From Bill for the Democratic Debate image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte44fa8ce3164ab21/698867e03c1639442345a2db/clintons.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [politics](/tag/politics/) ## politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What Hillary Can Learn From Bill for the Democratic Debate by [Gil Troy](/author/gil-troy/) ## Gil Troy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 12, 2015 5:34 PM CUT  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Former US President Bill Clinton hug after she officially launched her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York on June 13, 2015. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Former US President Bill Clinton hug after she officially launched her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination during a speech at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York on June 13, 2015.Timothy A. Clary—Getty Images by [Gil Troy](/author/gil-troy/) ## Gil Troy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 12, 2015 5:34 PM CUT As Hillary Clinton prepares for the first Democratic debate on Tuesday, she should consult one of America’s most experienced presidential debaters: her husband. More actor than orator, Bill Clinton was not the most eloquent debater. And his wife is the great family phrase-maker, having popularized iconic clichés, including “[the vast right-wing conspiracy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwtkorQKGFE "undefined"),” “[3 A.M.](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/29/clinton-raises-the-stakes-in-new-ad/ "undefined")” gut checks and the “[glass ceiling](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/22/hillary-clinton-hardest-highest-glass-ceiling-president "undefined").” Moreover, the most memorable 1992 debate highlights included one unfortunate gesture made by Clinton’s rival, President George H.W. Bush, and one line Bush never even uttered. Still, debates have become modern America’s gladiatorial contests, political death matches wherein simply surviving can be miraculous. And like a rock star whose lyrics are incomprehensible, Clinton’s real power was in his overall performance. Bill Clinton’s great skill during the 1992 debate—and as president—was combining genuine compassion with a mastery of policy proposals that he believed would heal America. Hillary Clinton lacks her husband’s natural people skills. She held her own during the 2008 debates, appearing smart and informed, but far from natural. She doesn’t seem to love having an audience like her husband does. The contrast between them makes her look even stiffer than she is. Even worse, she is often too cautious to pitch policies passionately, although the latest school violence roused her to endorse gun control [eloquently](http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/why-clinton-feels-safe-running-to-sanders-left-on-guns/ "undefined"). For Bill Clinton, his defining 1992 debate moment occurred when President George H.W. Bush [glanced at his watch,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBrW2Pz9Iiw "undefined") then stumbled through a question about how “the national debt personally affected” him during the Oct. 15 Town Hall-style debate. Clinton had lobbied hard for such an audience-focused format. Bush fell into Clinton’s trap, failing to discern the meaning behind the question, then sounding like the high-toned WASP he was trying to pretend not to be. He responded: “Are you suggesting that if somebody has means that the national debt doesn’t affect them?” Bush’s bumbling fed a national delusion—still occasionally recycled by reporters—that Bush did not know the cost of a gallon of milk. This [false political memory miscoded](http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/31/science/miscoding-is-seen-as-the-root-of-false-memories.html?pagewanted=all "undefined") a real incident, ascribing a gaffe that happened elsewhere to the overhyped debates. The electronic scanner of a mock supermarket checkout at a technology exhibition “[amazed](http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/05/us/bush-encounters-the-supermarket-amazed.html "undefined")” Bush, even though it was as magical to most Americans by 1992 as a cell phone is today. Both the debate mistake he made and the one he didn’t reinforced Clinton’s critique that Bush was an out-of-touch patrician, ready for forced retirement. Bill Clinton exploited Bush’s stumble subtly, then—Hillary take note!—telegraphed caring, concern and commitment. A political maestro, Clinton knew how to connect emotionally with suffering voters. The young, charismatic Arkansas governor approached the questioner who had asked the debt question and [said](http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-15-1992-second-half-debate-transcript "undefined"): “Tell me how it’s affected you again,” as if he were auditioning to be America’s therapist-in-chief. The woman hesitated, so Clinton filled in the blanks, asking (not telling): “You know people who’ve lost their jobs and lost their homes?” He then plunged into his usual “Arkansas governor as mayor, friend and savior” speech, emphasizing that as governor of a small state, he knew people who were suffering, he was alleviating that suffering, and he had the right formula for ending our national suffering. Clinton also offered an artful dodge that night, which might help Hillary with the email server headache. Refusing to attack Bush personally, Clinton [said](http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/16/us/the-1992-campaign-transcript-of-2d-tv-debate-between-bush-clinton-and-perot.html?pagewanted=all "undefined"): “I’m not interested in his character. I want to change the character of the presidency.” For Tuesday’s debate, Bill should coach Hill to keep smiling, keep caring, and keep _thinking_ during the debate, without getting distracted by the three-ring journalistic circus. She should not let Bernie Sanders annoy her or yank her too far left. Given her latest late night talk show outings—drinking on [_Jimmy Fallon_](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/09/17/jimmy%5Ffallon%5Fgrills%5Fhillary%5Fclinton%5Fas%5Fdonald%5Ftrump%5Fon%5Fthe%5Ftonight%5Fshow.html "undefined") and playing a bartender on [_Saturday Night Live_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/arts/television/review-hillary-clinton-on-saturday-night-live.html "undefined")—she may be tempted to keep trying these folksy, woman-of-the-people gestures. But debates require what we thought of in the 1990s as a Clintonesque mix of substance and showmanship. Hillary Clinton needs to show the American people that she loves politics, that she loves people, and that there is nowhere else she would rather be that night than in the arena—with a glint in her eye, a smile on her face, and the kind of digestible, understandable, and practical solutions to America’s problems that Bill Clinton pitched and personified so expertly. ### See Hillary Clinton's Evolution in 20 Photos  Teenager: Hillary Rodham poses in her 1965 senior class portrait from Park Ridge East High School in Illinois. AP  Law School Student: Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham pose for a snapshot at Yale Law School in 1972\. They married in 1975. Clinton Presidential Library  Mother: Clinton poses with her husband, Bill, then in his first term as governor, with their week-old daughter, Chelsea, on March 5, 1980. Donald R. Broyles—AP  Campaign Companion: Clinton celebrates her husband's victory in a Democratic runoff in Little Rock, Ark. on June 8, 1982. AP  Arkansas First Lady: Clinton is seen in her inaugural ball gown in 1985. A. Lynn—AP  Political Wife: Clinton celebrates her husband's inauguration in Little Rock on Sept. 20, 1991. Danny Johnston—AP  Dignitary: Clinton receives an honorary law degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., on May 30, 1992. Chris Ocken—AP  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a meeting during the presidential campaign for her husband in Buffalo, N.Y., on April 4, 1992. Bill Sikes—AP  First Lady: Clinton appears at the MTV Inauguration Ball at the Washington Convention Center on Jan. 20, 1993. Shayna Brennan—AP  Second-Term First Lady: Clinton attends the Inaugural Ball after her husband was sworn in to a second term on Jan. 20, 1997. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  New York Senator: Clinton speaks at a press conference with female Democratic senators in Washington on June 21, 2006. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Committee Member: Clinton listens to the testimony of Lt. General David Petraeus to the Senate Armed Forces Committee at a hearing on Capital Hill in Washington on Jan. 23, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Candidate: Clinton holds a a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., while running for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 2, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Jan. 2, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Secretary of State: Clinton kisses President Obama at a joint session of Congress in Washington on Feb. 24, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton joins Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 3, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Witness: Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Jan. 23, 2013. J. Scott Applewhite—AP  Author: Clinton attends a signing memoir, "Hard Choices," at a Costco in Arlington, Va., on June 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Grandmother: Clinton holds her granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on Sept. 27, 2014. Office of President Clinton/AP  Once and Future Candidate: Clinton speaks at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, on Sept. 14, 2014. 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