If the third debate were a NASCAR race, Donald Trump would win easy. Hillary Clinton’s racing suit would have patches with the logos of all her corporate sponsors and big donors; Trump — whose campaign is funded by small donations — would have the logo of the American people, a U.S. flag, and that alone would tell the story. The audience would know to jeer when Hillary Clinton claims she wants to get “dark money” out of politics. If she really wanted to get dark money out of politics, she’d retire.

But it’s hard to beat Hillary Clinton in a debate because she’ll say anything — whatever polls best that day becomes her “public position.” Her mendacity-fueled campaign does donuts on truth and transparency then shamelessly tries to merge onto the moral high road.

The real way to hurt Hillary Clinton isn’t with nicknames or mockery. Issues are her Kryptonite. If Trump talks issues, he wins. If Trump talks Trump, he loses.

Close

Meanwhile, the corporate mainstream media can’t be bothered by revelation after revelation from WikiLeaks because they’re on a kamikaze mission to destroy Trump. No surprise. There’s nothing new about media attacks on the GOP candidate. What’s new this time around is that all pretense of objective journalism seems to have been Bleachbit right out of existence. It’s not about journalism or truth-telling. It’s not even about ratings or profits. They are dead-set on choosing the president.

The multinational corporations and the politicians in their pockets, the current administration, the mainstream media, the neocons, and the billionaires are all against Trump. And still, he’s only down a few points in the polls. And still, the momentum could swing back in his direction. And if that happens, he still has multiple paths to victory on the electoral map.

So much is resting on the debate. It’s the only time Trump gets to talk to a huge portion of the electorate. He cannot waste this opportunity and still win. It’s closing argument time, and here’s what Trump needs to focus on:

1) America First
When it maintains message discipline, “America First” is what Trump’s campaign is all about and it’s the answer to Hillary’s complaint about why she isn’t “50 points ahead.” Hillary loses on every issue except the issue of Trump’s personality.

In America, minimum wage, labor unions, and labor laws have made it nearly impossible to exploit the American worker. That led to the birth of free trade agreements which open up a developing world of workers for American companies to exploit. Make the stuff in developing countries and then send it back to America for free. Unfettered free trade rains down pink slips on the American heartland, but the corporations that benefit from it own the mainstream media and the politicians.

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Trump needs to hammer home his free trade argument — which will resonate in the Rust Belt states that are supposed to be Hillary Clinton’s electoral firewall, but which have absorbed the brunt of our bad trade deals.

Illegal immigration drives down wages and also costs Americans their jobs. And those wage losses and job losses affect white Americans, black Americans, and Latino-Americans. It’s not an issue of race or national origin; it’s an issue of who’s following the law, and who’s not.

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Thanks to WikiLeaks, we now know that Hillary Clinton’s “dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders.”

That alone makes Trump the jobs candidate. Hillary Clinton will sell American jobs to the lowest bidder — it’s her “dream.” That’s why her NASCAR pantsuit would have patches with so many multinational logos.

2) Don’t Take The Bait
Watching Trump spend his precious debate seconds discussing his own personality as though it were a real campaign issue is like watching Wile E. Coyote explode himself with a pile of Acme TNT. Trump needs to be the Roadrunner, leaving these peripheral issues in a cloud of dust.

Hillary Clinton will try to make Donald Trump’s temperament the big issue of this debate. She’ll pivot to the Billy Bush tape every chance she gets. She has to. Her campaign is built on taking a rusty old wreck of ideas and hiding them under a blanket of anti-Trump rhetoric. Allowing voters even the tiniest peek under the blanket could prove disastrous for Clinton.

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Every second Trump spends on issues that don’t affect the American people is another second he helps Hillary Clinton run off the clock.

No time for non-issues. No time for insults.

The real way to hurt Hillary Clinton isn’t with nicknames or mockery. The real way to hurt her is by forcing her to talk about trade, immigration, jobs, Obamacare, the economy, the status quo, police officers, the weaponized bureaucracy, Benghazi, Libya, and ISIS. Issues are her Kryptonite.

If Trump talks issues, he wins. If Trump talks Trump, he loses. And so does America.

3) Humility
Most Americans love this country. From the most conservative Republican to the most liberal Democrat. If they didn’t, Clinton wouldn’t have to tell lies. She wouldn’t have to keep her open borders dream a secret.

There are still undecided voters out there, and many of them want to vote for Trump, but they aren’t sure if he can be trusted to captain the precious country they love so much.

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Trump needs to put his love of country on display in this debate. Trump needs to show that he understands the magnitude of the presidency. Voters want to see that he’s humble and that he understands that Donald Trump the man is just a tiny blip compared to the American presidency.

You don’t stroll into a job that was held by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln without the understanding that you are unequal to it. That all men and women are unequal to it but someone has to do it.

This last debate is the third installment of a trilogy. Trump doesn’t need to repeat what was covered in the first two installments, he needs to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of a media smear campaign and show he can be a proper leader. The nastiness of this election has shifted the American zeitgeist — the time for attacks has passed.

It’s time to prove you can unite the country.