Introduction

he houselights in the campus auditorium fall. The audience grows quiet.

A producer initiates the countdown . . . four . . . three . . .two . . . and

at precisely 9 p.m. eastern time the cameras go hot.
All at once, seventy million Americans are seeing the same tensionpacked scene unfold in real time: Two commanding figures, both national
celebrities loved and hated by millions, stride confidently toward each other
from opposite ends of a vast, elaborately retrofitted stage. A white- hot
glare beats down from the klieg lights above. A clamorous applause rises
from the seats below. Thousands of reporters in a nearby gymnasium sit
with their eyes glued to closed-circuit TVs, their twitchy fingers hovering
over keyboards, preparing to chronicle every micromoment. The two figures
meet in the middle of the stage and shake hands with the menacing
intensity of cage fighters entering a match.
It is October 2016. The presidential race is in its final, frenetic weeks.
And the Republican nominee is about to go head-to-head with the
Democratic candidate in the critical first debate of the general election.
The stakes are high. Whoever wins the election will take office at a
moment of uncommon uncertainty and upheaval in American life tasked
with setting the national agenda for the most contentious issues of the era,
from racial injustice to religious freedom, from police accountability to
privacy rights, from immigration to income inequality. The average age of
the Supreme Court justices has now passed seventy, and the next president
could plausibly make as many as four new appointments to the bench, on
top of thousands of other appointments across the judiciary and executive
branches an almost unprecedented opportunity to shape American
jurisprudence for decades to come. Abroad, the growing terrorist threat of
the Islamic State and the geopolitical bullying of countries like Russia will
present the new commander in chief with a host of life-and-death war-andpeace decisions that could have lasting global repercussions. And back
home, the outcome of the election will almost certainly make the difference
between an Oval Office occupant who celebrates, solidifies, and builds upon
President Obamas liberal domestic policies and one who spends the next
four years actively working to unspool his legacy.
The choice facing the country is stark, its consequences far- reaching
and it could all hinge on what happens onstage over the next ninety
minutes. Tonight, the eyes of the nation are fixed on those two figures
planted behind their podiums. Who does the audience see?