NEWS Face-off is history in making

WASHINGTON: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is the clear favourite as the two major-party candidates for the White House go head-to-head in their crucial first debate tomorrow.

If Ms Clinton, the Democratic nominee, possesses deep Washington experience and in-depth knowledge of the issues, she lacks what supporters of her Republican rival see as his authenticity.

The two candidates have been laying into each other for a year but have never appeared face-to-face on the same stage, just strides apart.

That surely will be one of the biggest attractions of the highly touted televised encounter, which analysts say could draw as many as 100 million viewers – a number never seen before in American politics.

The debate will be historymaking in another way: no woman has taken part in a US presidential debate since they began in 1960, with then senator John F. Kennedy squaring off in a Chicago studio against vice president Richard Nixon.

Most voters have already made their choice ahead of the November 8 election, and the series of three presidential debates (the others are on October 9 and 19) will probably just reinforce their decisions.

Still, the debates can have an impact on voters still undecided on who should succeed Barack Obama. And these wavering voters appear to be more numerous than four years ago, amounting to 9 per cent of the electorate, according to an NBC poll.