to prepare for sunday night<u+2019>s town hall-style debate , hillary clinton is not dwelling on five-point plans or attack lines. instead, she is holed up with aides to practice her body language, facial expressions, vocal cadences and more conversational answers about college debt, the heroin epidemic and other topics that have come up at her campaign events and that have allowed her to show empathy and emotion along with policy knowledge. donald j. trump scoffs at all that. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t need to rehearse being human,<u+201d> he said in an interview last week. he and his advisers say that sunday night<u+2019>s town hall-style format, with its open stage and questions from real voters, will showcase his comfort on television and his direct style, which they see as appealing to voters who are turned off by what they call mrs. clinton<u+2019>s canned warmth. <u+201c>after decades in public life, hillary clinton is still <u+2018>finding her voice,<u+2019><u+201d> said kellyanne conway, the campaign manager for mr. trump. <u+201c>for her to have to come from behind the comfort of the podium is fraught with peril.<u+201d> both campaigns say the town hall-style exchanges with voters will reveal <u+2014> for better or for worse <u+2014> <u+201c>the real clinton<u+201d> and <u+201c>the real trump.<u+201d> but it is mr. trump who faces graver political consequences if he does not show the best of himself, according to several of his allies and advisers. his performance in the first debate was widely criticized after he seemed to struggle to stay focused and to keep to the debating points and tactics that his advisers had given him. they are now preparing him again, somewhat differently than before, but with the same uncertainty about whether he can follow through. some of his advisers fear that mr. trump<u+2019>s fiery style could create uncomfortable moments with undecided voters in the debate hall at washington university in st. louis . the two candidates will take a mix of questions from voters and from the moderators, martha raddatz of abc and anderson cooper of cnn. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s polished and disciplined performance in the first debate helped give her a boost in some national and battleground state polls. the trend has trump advisers acknowledging privately that sunday<u+2019>s debate is a must-win for their candidate. only a strong performance will offer mr. trump hope of reversing his slide and starting a last-ditch effort to persuade undecided voters that he is qualified to be president. <u+201c>he understands this debate is very important for him,<u+201d> said rudolph w. giuliani , the former mayor of new york, who is a senior adviser to mr. trump and is helping prepare him for sunday. for mrs. clinton, the town hall-style event provides her biggest venue yet to try to project a softer side and to improve her likability. a majority of voters tell pollsters that they distrust and dislike mrs. clinton, a reality that could hurt turnout and, if she prevails in november, hamper her presidency. for all the praise for mrs. clinton<u+2019>s performance in the first debate, her surgical takedown of mr. trump did little to change voters<u+2019> perceptions of her. but, in contrast to mr. trump, who prefers big rallies, mrs. clinton has interacted regularly with voters during her campaign, and some of her most powerful moments have come in those settings. at a town hall-style event in iowa, mrs. clinton became teary and embraced a 10-year-old girl who said she had been bullied at school. and just before the new hampshire primary, in response to a question from a rabbi, mrs. clinton delivered an extended off-the-cuff riff about her own spiritual journey. <u+201c>she likes answering questions from individual citizens and she listens and relates to people,<u+201d> said john d. podesta , the campaign chairman for mrs. clinton. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s a format that donald trump isn<u+2019>t as used to.<u+201d> but the audience of undecided voters who will ask half of the questions on sunday will not be as friendly as the supporters who asked mrs. clinton questions at campaign stops. her efforts to seem sincere and personable may also collide with mr. trump<u+2019>s efforts to score points against her for her use of a private email server as secretary of state; her oversight during the attacks on the american consulate in benghazi, libya; and her ties to wealthy donors to her family foundation . <u+201c>it helps if you<u+2019>ve been subjected to questions from normal people during the campaign, which of course donald trump has not, but it<u+2019>s not the same,<u+201d> said mickey kantor, a longtime adviser to former president bill clinton. mr. kantor said that having a moderator, an opponent and a television audience of potentially 80 million viewers made it almost impossible to prepare. <u+201c>you can<u+2019>t just take a question and run off to your talking points,<u+201d> mr. kantor said. advisers say mr. trump must alternate between personable and piercing during the 90-minute debate. they want him to show interest, empathy, and even some humility, in his exchanges with the audience, while hammering mrs. clinton in a way that is not too off-putting. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s just harder to attack when nice, undecided voters are all around you,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s easier to do when people are sitting in a dark hall and you can barely see them.<u+2019><u+2019> mr. trump logged some practice on thursday in new hampshire by participating in a town hall-style forum that even included a two-minute clock <u+2014> the same time limit he will face on sunday. mr. trump denied that the event was a dry run for the debate, saying such a suggestion made him look <u+201c>like a child.<u+2019><u+2019> his performance was uneven, even facing an audience asking friendly questions. some of his answers were pointed, like his criticism of the iran nuclear deal . others were perhaps reassuring, like his insistence that he would stop the flow of heroin into the state. at other times, mr. trump meandered, such as a long response about hispanics that included an observation about those in las vegas. <u+201c>latinos, they like to be called in that area,<u+201d> he said. robby mook, the clinton campaign manager, said mrs. clinton<u+2019>s aides anticipated a more disciplined and prepared mr. trump who wouldn<u+2019>t <u+201c>unravel or unwind the way he did an hour into the last debate.<u+201d> some of mr. trump<u+2019>s advisers, for their part, are setting a low bar for his performance. they say mr. trump needs to be articulate, play offense against mrs. clinton and not lose his cool as he did in their first matchup. yet his ability to accomplish this remains in doubt, given his tendency to hit back hard when challenged <u+2014> sometimes to the point of sputtering, as he did when he came under attack at the first debate over his past insults of women. a smaller group of advisers is helping mr. trump prepare than were involved before the first debate. the group includes ms. conway and gov. chris christie of new jersey, as well as stephen k. bannon, the campaign<u+2019>s chief executive, and mr. trump<u+2019>s son-in-law, jared kushner. mrs. clinton is also practicing. at a <u+201c>family town hall<u+201d> in haverford, pa., on tuesday, she nearly leapt out of her chair to respond to a 15-year-old high school student who said she worried that mr. trump<u+2019>s comments about women hurt the body image of girls her age. her formal preparations include drills and mock debates with mr. podesta and karen dunn, a washington lawyer; jake sullivan, her chief policy adviser; ron klain, a veteran presidential debate coach, and jennifer palmieri, the campaign<u+2019>s communications director. the team joined mrs. clinton at her home in washington on wednesday, snacking on fresh strawberries as they helped shape her answers. in some respects, mrs. clinton<u+2019>s advisers, many of whom also worked for bill clinton, invented the town hall-style format. mr. klain was among the advisers who first suggested to president george bush and ross perot that the candidates abandon the traditional format, and take part in a televised town hall-style forum with a live audience of undecided voters. mr. clinton was not yet known as the master of the format, and his opponents agreed. the official debates have included a town hall-style event ever since. that 1992 debate led to a moment that cemented mr. clinton<u+2019>s popular appeal. when a woman asked the candidates how the national debt personally affected them, mr. bush delivered a dry response about interest rates. mr. clinton, using a tactic he had rehearsed, stood up off his stool and took several steps closer to the voter. <u+201c>tell me how it<u+2019>s affected you again,<u+201d> mr. clinton said, looking directly into the voter<u+2019>s eyes. <u+201c>you know people who have lost their jobs and lost their homes?<u+201d> mr. bush, before his response, had checked his watch as the voter was talking, a split-second movement that led mr. clinton<u+2019>s advisers to burst out in cheers backstage, recognizing the game-changing moment. trump advisers are well aware that even small gestures can lead to setbacks. they have reviewed video footage of mr. trump<u+2019>s expressions while mrs. clinton was speaking and say the town hall-style format will play to their advantage in at least one respect: the dreaded split screen, which captured mr. trump scowling and barking into his microphone during the first debate, may be used less if the candidates move around the stage to engage with voters. <u+201c>a rigid atmosphere can get him in trouble,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said about mr. trump. <u+201c>he<u+2019>s a quick learner, but that doesn<u+2019>t mean he knows all the tricks that you learn over decades in political life.<u+201d> find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the first draft newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on october 8, 2016, on page a13 of the new york edition with the headline: for trump, a must-win. for clinton, a chance to display a softer side. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
a must-win debate for donald trump, but not a must-rehearse one
amy chozick patrick healy