Tens of millions of Americans will have their eyes glued to their television screens Tuesday, September 29.
They will not miss the first debate organized between the Republican candidate and incumbent President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden a few weeks before the US presidential election on November 3.
In Cleveland, Ohio, a key state likely to tip one way or the other, the two will meet on stage for 90 minutes, watched by Fox News reporter Chris Wallace, a respected figure in both camps.
Covid-19 requires, no handshake is planned for this duel which will take place in front of a small audience.
Distanced in the polls for long weeks, Donald Trump is hoping for a good evening, or a spectacular misstep from his Democratic opponent, to revive himself.
If their impact on the ballot often remains limited, these meetings are highlights of the electoral campaign, since the first televised tête-à-tête organized 60 years ago in Chicago between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
As always during this essential exercise, each candidate will want to show himself to his advantage while trying to discredit the other.
But beware of the odds which, failing to tip the election, can cost the candidates dearly.
A quick look back at the key moments in the history of the televised presidential debates in the United States.
John Kennedy much better prepared than Richard Nixon
(1960)
For this first televised presidential debate in the history of the United States, on September 26, 1960 in Chicago, Richard Nixon is not in his element.
The contrast between the two White House candidates is stark: the young and dashing John Kennedy shows himself at ease in front of the camera, looking deeply at the camera and offering clear and concise answers, while the Republican candidate sweats and looks ill. prepared for this new exercise.
Proof of the importance of television: most of the 70 million Americans who watched the debate in front of their televisions estimated that John Kennedy, elected President of the United States a few weeks later, had emerged as the winner;
those who listened to the debate on the radio concluded the opposite.
Gerald Ford's Huge Blunder in the Cold War
(1976)
Being president of the United States doesn't necessarily avoid foreign policy blunders.
Gerald Ford had the cruel experience of this in 1976 when he answered a question about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
"There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," he said, under the dumbfounded eyes of New York Times reporter Max Frankel. .
In the middle of the Cold War, this remark made the press cabbage for several days and probably cost the outgoing president a few votes, finally defeated by Jimmy Carter on election day.
Ronald Reagan gets rid of an embarrassing question with his humor
(1984)
Ronald Reagan, 73 in 1984, was then the oldest sitting president in United States history.
Asked about his age and his ability to occupy the position when he is running for a second term, the former actor comes out with a pirouette: "I will not make the question of age an element of this campaign. I will not exploit, for political reasons, the youth and inexperience of my adversary, "he replied, turning the question to his advantage.
At his side, the Democratic candidate Walter Mondale, then 56, laughs yellow.
"I knew right away that his line was going to hurt me," he explains in an interview with PBS six years later. "If you look at the pictures, you see that I am smiling, but if you take a closer look , you will see some tears on my face because I knew he had just scored a decisive point. "
Ronald Reagan is indeed re-elected president and still holds the record for the oldest president in the history of the United States.
George Bush's Gestural Fault in the Face of the Americans
(1992)
The behavior may also disqualify some candidates.
Invited to answer questions from the public in 1992, the two candidates Bill Clinton and George Bush have a diametrically opposed approach to the debate.
On certain questions, the outgoing Republican president struggles to answer the citizens who question him and seems impatient to end it.
He looks at his watch several times.
His opponent, on the other hand, listens to questions and shows empathy.
A difference of size which undoubtedly played a lot in the victory of Clinton a few weeks later.
Al Gore's incomprehensible "approach" to George
W. Bush
(2000)
The images are sometimes sufficient on their own, but what Al Gore did in 2000 remains, 16 years later, still incomprehensible.
While George W. Bush, standing, explains that "this campaign does not concern our philosophy, our position on certain subjects ...", Al Gore gets up from his stool and approaches Bush as if to provoke him.
Bush looks at Gore, gives him a quick nod with a smile, and goes back to his phrase: "... but on who is really capable of acting."
The audience laughs, the outgoing vice-president is embarrassed.
His luck?
Social networks and other memes did not yet exist in 2000. That did not prevent him from losing the election, however.
While leading by 8 points in the polls before the three debates, Al Gore was left behind by 4 points after this third and final debate during which he clumsily approached his opponent.
A debate that turns into a personal confrontation between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
(2016)
The second round between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton proved to be muscular.
A little more than 48 hours after the release of a video of the businessman where he made degrading remarks about women, the billionaire began by defending himself.
The Republican candidate repeated his apologies, while making accusations against Bill Clinton.
An hour and a half before the start of the debate, he had invited journalists to a hotel where he was surrounded by four women, three of whom accuse the former Democratic president of assaulting them in the 1970s and 1990s, and accused Hillary Clinton of to have helped her husband to denigrate them.
The latter quickly replied.
The Donald Trump of the video, "it is quite him", she hammered, recalling that the real estate mogul had also attacked "immigrants, African Americans, Latinos , to the disabled ".
Tense, sometimes threatening in attitude, Donald Trump took out, one by one, all his cartridges: private messaging business, Benghazi drama, Hillary Clinton's blunder on "pitiful" voters.
If the debate had started in a climate of extreme tension, the two candidates not shaking hands, it ended, surprisingly, on a more peaceful note.
Hillary Clinton said she respected Donald Trump's children, and he praised her fighting spirit.
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