The preparer in chief gets a 10 out of 10 for the first two debates. But who knows what will happen tonight.
The preparer in chief gets a 10 out of 10 for the first two debates. But who knows what will happen tonight. Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com

Follow our live-blog of the third and final presidential debate, tonight at 6 pm.

Yesterday morning, after a fitful night's sleep, I got out of bed and threw up. I thought it had to do with Thai food leftovers, but maybe it had something to do with tonight's debate.

According to the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s aides are preparing him with a sharp escalation in attacks on Mrs. Clinton’s character and a focus on her health, according to a senior campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

An escalation? Really?

As Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic Emily Nussbaum tweeted, "I can’t wait until the debates are over. Trump has made this whole election very sick."

The New York Times adds:

On Sunday, in a debate prep session at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump sparred with Gov. Chris Christie, who informally played the role of Mrs. Clinton.

Somehow I... can't quite picture that.

Anyway, lots of people are sickened, crouched down on bathroom floors, bracing for whatever kitchen sinks Donald's going to throw at Hillary tonight. We'll all be watching in The Stranger's office together, liveslogging the carnage—so check in on us at 6 pm!

You have to hand it to Hillary: She has acquitted herself flawlessly so far. I'm in the tank, but I give her a 10 out of 10 for the first two debates. How did she keep from getting angry? Can you imagine if there were gifs out there of her going, "How DARE you," or "That really angers me to hear that, Donald," or anything along those lines? Not once has she taken the bait and gotten bent out of shape. All we have is this:

And by the way, Clinton says that shimmy was not practiced—she told Ellen Degeneres she remembered saying "Whew! Okay!" but she didn't even know she'd shimmied until she watched the debate later:

It's not out of nowhere that people are having bodily reactions to what's been happening, and it's not just liberals like me and Emily Nussbaum. Republican consultant Steve Schmidt looked like he was about to start crying (or maybe he was crying in a macho, restrained way?) on MSNBC last night—this whole segment's good (it begins with Obama telling Trump to "stop whining"), but jump forward to 4:20 if you want to see Schmidt get choked up:

And after Schmidt got emotional talking about Christmas, FDR, Churchill, and the sanctity of U.S. electoral processes, Brian Williams clears the air by saying, "This is emotional stuff."

How are others bracing for tonight?






Meanwhile, expect the internet to be clogged with pointless debate previews all day long today... like this very blog post I just suckered you into reading!


See you back here at 6 pm.