Welcome to McClatchy’s Voter Survival Guide, an interactive presentation of daily events from one of the strangest presidential campaigns in modern history.
The stage is set for the first debate between Clinton and Trump tonight at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York.
Both candidates have different ways they can win or lose tonight and viewership could approach 100 million.
The polls open nationally in 42 days. Let’s get started.
Where to watch the debate
Every major broadcast outlet will be showing tonight’s debate, which starts at 9pm ET. ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Telemundo, Univision and C-SPAN will all show it and NBC’s Lester Holt will moderate.
Don’t have cable? No problem. Digital outlets like Buzzfeed, The Daily Caller, Huffington Post, Politico, Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal and Hulu will stream the debate.
Twitter will also stream the debate using the same system it uses for football games and Snapchat will be offering short snippets of behind-the-scenes action. YouTube will feature debate coverage from multiple media outlets.
You can also watch the debate via virtual reality, but you’ll need specific equipment and the technology still needs some work.
The good news about tonight’s debate regardless of your political views? There won’t be commercials.
How Clinton can win the debate
First, Clinton needs to show that she is healthy by standing on stage without incident for 90 minutes amid concerns about her health.
The Democratic nominee has spent the past few weeks undergoing mock debates and anticipating two Trumps, one unpredictable and the other more conventional. But she can’t sound like she’s been practicing for weeks. Her tone and delivery need to feel natural and unrehearsed for undecided voters to change their tune and cast a ballot for her.