Donald Trump has much to gain and little to lose in his debate appearance Thursday night — and has smartly downplayed his experience as a debater going into the first face-off of GOP presidential candidates, public affairs consultant and Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley tells
Newsmax TV.
In a panel discussion Monday led by "Newsmax Prime" hosts J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan, Shirley, author of the upcoming
"Last Act," and president of Shirley and Banister Public Affairs, says the worse Trump can do is "come out with a draw."
"He has more to gain than he has to lose in this," Shirley said. "He's just such a large, dominating presence right now in the political stage."
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Pollster John Zogby, author of
"First Globals," noted the debate will be "an important moment."
"It's the first time he actually will share a stage perhaps with anyone, let alone share a stage with nine other candidates," he said. "But he gets a little bit of slack unless he really puts his foot in his mouth — although he's put his foot in his mouth before and emerged okay."
Shirley said he's finally "starting to understand" Trump.
"He has an uncanny ability to pick his moments," he said. "He's always been good in terms of timing with business and how he's developing a very good rhythm as far as American politics and he sensed that there was a time to take a little bit more serious posture to kind of slow down the rhetoric…"
"He very well may be the next nominee, he very well may be the next president and he senses that now is the time to start slowing things down and just maybe speaking with a little bit more authority," he added.
Zogby thinks the candidates who may have the most to lose in the Thursday debate are former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
"For Perry, because he's been around the park before," Zogby said. "This was supposed to be redemption for him this time and he presumably doesn't even get a chance for that kind of redemption. He's bottomed-out but he's not showing any capacity to rise."
As for Christie, Zogby said, "Here's a guy who was riding very high in 2012, that was his moment."
"He's bottomed-out here and in the latest polls," he said. "If he's not on that stage, or if he doesn't score some sort of knockout punch against the fellow governor, like a Scott Walker or a Jeb Bush, then he's in real trouble."
The panel also debated the wisdom of Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus over the weekend
downplaying any fallout to the party from remarks any of the candidates will make during the debate.
He made "two mistakes," Shirley maintained.
"One, he referred to the Republican Party as a private organization. That doesn't sound very … inclusive to me. Secondly …to say that none of these men speak for the Republican Party is contrary to the spirit of Republicanism and the ideology of conservatism. American conservatism rejects the leader principle and that one person speaks for the party… They all, to a degree, speak for the Republican Party and he ought to be embracing it instead of rejecting it."
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