Romney’s make or break moment: the inside story

“Debate prep involves three things. Know the material: your own policy positions, the other guy’s positions and what they’re going to argue. Number two: strategy, and how they will execute it. And the third thing, perhaps the most important, is they have to be mentally prepared.”

Brett O’Donnell knows what he is talking about. He has been a top presidential debate coach since 2004, when he was part of the team schooling John McCain for his encounters with Barack Obama.

This year. he was brought back into the top team after some rather unimpressive performances by Romney during the primary debates, to shake things up a bit. The whole process happens behind closed doors – but O’Donnell has given Channel 4 News his unique insight into how it all works.

Romney’s intensive preparation began a month ago, at a friend’s home in deepest Vermont: his top advisers, including Stuart Stevens and Beth Myers, were there, along with a particuarly crucial figure, Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who has been playing the part of Obama in a series of mock debates.

Role playing Obama

In fact Portman is well used to being the surrogate Democrat: he has role played Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and John Edwards for the past 12 years. “He’s the best in the business”, says O’Donnell. “He’s vital to the process. The more Romney has to react to things that are very likely to happen, the better he’ll be when it comes to the real thing.”

In fact the mock debates could hardly be more realistic: there are proper podiums, and a stand-in moderator, played by another top GOP advisor. A party spokesman has described the set-up as “game day conditions”.

The most important thing is, they have to be mentally prepared. Brett O’Donnell, Romney debate coach

If Portman has been criticised for anything, it is for being too tough on his opponent: legend has it that Cindy McCain got so upset by the cut and thrust of his mocked-up encounters with her husband four years ago, that she fled the room in tears.

Portman himself rarely talks about his stand-in role, but he told CNN: “You have to be mean. You need to get under their skin. Sometimes the candidate you are working with doesn’t appreciate it, and even more often, their family doesn’t appreciate it.”

“It’s important to be tough”, agrees O’Donnell. “If they think that they’ve faced tougher questions in practice than the real debate, it’s all so much easier.” But he says the Republican has a more difficult job on his hands than President Obama.

“The incumbent occupies the office: he won the last set of debates – so he’s already a winner. The challenger has to make the case for change, which is much harder.”

Relax: just do it

If all this sounds ridiculously intense, then it is just as important to help the candidate to take a moment and breathe. Friends of Al Gore describe how, ahead of his 2000 clash with George W Bush, the vice-president had memorised so many facts and figures that he was like a hyper-coiled spring: they were worried he would just blurt out a stream of information instead of listening and responding more naturally.

It took a visit from his wife Tipper to calm him down: as O’Donnell admits, in the immediate run-up to the debate, it is crucial for any candidate to be in the right frame of mind.

“It depends what will make them relaxed: for some it’s taking a nap, having a special meal, going for a walk. But they shouldn’t get too relaxed. Being nervous is a good thing: it heightens the senses.”

In the end, though, the presidential debate is about one thing: winning. You will not have to wait long for the pundits and pollsters to come up with their verdicts, and there has already been a deluge of headlines about this being Mitt’s last chance to nail it, before it is too late.

Nailing it?

For O’Donnell, though, the point is not “crushing” Obama, but winning on the politics. “At the end of this debate, the audience that watches it has to start blaming Obama for this bad economy”, he said. “Romney has to make that argument effective and execute that strategy: then the numbers will start moving in his direction.”

That is it, then: all those days, weeks, months of rehearsal, the policies learned, the one-line zingers memorised. President Obama, say his aides, has not had the same luxury, and First Lady Michelle has confessed she has been giving her husband some positive reinforcement, telling CNN: “He’s a very good debater, so I do tell him to have fun and relax, and just be himself.”

In fact both men are incredibly smart: they both know their stuff, they both have a great deal at stake. That could make for an excellent debate, full of informed statements and witty rejoinders. Or just too cool, too measured, too safe, to generate anything very exciting.

Tonight’s debate is anyone’s to win: but riskily – it is anyone’s to lose. Tens of millions of people will be tuning in to find out.

Felicity Spector writes about US politics for Channel 4 News