Tired? Clinton Disappears from Trail Ahead of First Debate

Hillary Clinton reignited speculation about her sickly constitution by suddenly canceling a fundraising event in North Carolina Wednesday night.

That Clinton would ditch any events in the crucial battleground state — especially on the same day on which a poll was released showing Trump leading her by 1 point in the Tar Heel State — is peculiar.

“If she doesn’t look 100 percent healthy, it will probably hurt her just based on the fact that it will be on people’s minds.”

Even more peculiar is the fact that Clinton — after a scheduled rally in Orlando, Florida Wednesday – will not make a single additional public appearance until the first presidential debate next Monday.

Clinton is either so afraid of Trump that she believes she needs to spend the better part of six days holed up in a hotel room somewhere preparing for the debate, so unwell she needs to spend the better part of six days resting and recuperating before the debate, or both.

This year’s debate format is not friendly to those with weak stamina. Monday’s 90-minute, commercial-free debate is divided into six segments of roughly 15 minutes. It’s difficult to imagine Clinton standing for 90 minutes straight without difficulty or incident — especially should the temperature of the room approach anywhere near 80 degrees.

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“If Hillary Clinton fainted or collapsed, it would be unprecedented, and it would almost certainly cost her the election,” Eddie Zipperer, a political science professor at Georgia Military College, told LifeZette.

“Take all the fallout we’re seeing from the famous new video of her collapsing and multiply it by 10, and that’s what would happen. She’d fall in the polls, and some Democrats would urge the party to replace her,” he said.

Of course, the moderators could be kind enough to lend Clinton a chair or stool — however, the image of Clinton perched meekly on a stool as an energetic Trump struts around is not likely one her campaign wants the public to see.

“The closest precedent that exists would probably be the first televised debate where people listening on the radio thought Nixon won, but people watching on TV thought Kennedy won,” Zipperer said.

“Nixon was sweaty and uncomfortable looking whereas Kennedy was handsome and composed. If she doesn’t look 100 percent healthy, it will probably hurt her just based on the fact that it will be on people’s minds,” Zipperer said.

According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, “the moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will then have an opportunity to respond to each other. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a deeper discussion of the topic.”

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Not only is its long, break-free nature a disadvantage for Clinton, but its general format does not give Clinton any particular advantages either.

While her innate wonkishness and depth of policy knowledge may serve her well in answering the moderator’s questions, it could be an Achilles heel in her ability to deflect the blows of an opponent who has run a campaign that has largely avoided attacking specific liberal policies, but instead focused on attacking general liberal pathologies.

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Clinton’s only real hope is that Trump is overly aggressive or easily flustered during the debate and comes across as a bully — and it seems Clinton is betting on such an eventuality.

“I am going to do my very best to communicate as clearly and fearlessly as I can in the face of the insults and the attacks and the bullying and the bigotry that we have seen coming from my opponent,” Clinton said Tuesday on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show.”