on wednesday, republican presidential nominee donald trump will square off with his democrat rival, hillary clinton, on the debate stage for the third and final time . with just 20 days left before election day<u+2014>and voters in several states already casting ballots<u+2014>here is what the businessman needs to do in the las vegas meeting to win over any remaining fence-sitters, persuade wavering supporters and motivate his base. expand his appeal mr. trump is at a low point in his campaign for the white house, with precious little time left to reverse course. polls show that mrs. clinton would be overwhelmingly elected if the vote were held today, with some surveys showing her competitive even in traditionally red states such as georgia, arizona, texas and alaska. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. tonight<u+2019>s debate may be mr. trump<u+2019>s last best chance to expand his electorate beyond the core group of republican supporters that have propelled him this far, and improve his dismal performance among college-educated suburban women and nonwhite voters, among other key constituencies. the best and perhaps only way to accomplish that is with a strong debate performance. but mr. trump<u+2019>s campaign kept up a busy schedule of rallies in the days before the debate, suggesting that prep for the event hasn<u+2019>t been a priority for the republican<u+2019>s team. mr. trump also needs to project the image of a plausible commander in chief, and offer a good answer to the accusations of sexual misbehavior. if debate moderator chris wallace of fox news challenges him on his prediction that widespread voter fraud will compromise the election, he<u+2019>ll need a coherent and persuasive answer. keep the pressure on clinton mr. trump has plenty of ammunition to fire mrs. clinton<u+2019>s way<u+2014>the controversy over her email server, the operations of her family foundation, her record in government and the seemingly unending series of embarrassing tidbits that reporters and conservative researchers have discovered in the emails hacked from campaign manager john podesta <u+2019>s account. but mr. trump largely failed to capitalize on such opportunities in the previous two debates. in the first debate, he struggled to land a single blow on mrs. clinton, while the second debate opened with a bitter back-and-forth over various alleged indiscretions and perceived ethical lapses. many of mr. trump<u+2019>s relatively substantive criticisms on trade and mrs. clinton<u+2019>s record were overshadowed by his threat to jail her if he is elected. he will need to be more effective at arguing that mrs. clinton represents a disappointing status quo, that her work as secretary of state has made the world more dangerous, and that she is, in his words, <u+201c>the most corrupt person ever to run for president.<u+201d> don<u+2019>t take the bait mr. trump has proved unable to avoid traps set by mrs. clinton, answering questions or trying to rebut accusations that he should simply dismiss or ignore. in the aftermath of the first debate, he was drawn into a back and forth with a former beauty queen that lasted for days. in the second debate, he categorically denied groping women only to have a number of women come forward in the subsequent days to allege that they were the victims of inappropriate sexual behavior by mr. trump , driving a week of negative press. mr. trump has denied the allegations. in tonight<u+2019>s debate he will need to be sidestep the pitfalls, stick to a game plan, parry accusations, ignore perceived slights and avoid being drawn into more feuds and controversies that start on the debate stage and end up consuming his campaign for days. the polling suggests that, at present, the onus is on mr. trump to steer his campaign out of its rough patch, while mrs. clinton needs only continue on course. write to byron tau at byron.tau@wsj.com
what donald trump needs to do in final debate - wsj
byron tau