How Donald Trump is preparing for the big debate

The first Republican debate is now a week away and the man leading in the polls was on The Boston Herald’s “Morning Meeting” warning his fans not to expect too much.

“I create jobs, I make great deals, I’m successful, but I’ve never debated before,” Donald Trump told the Herald. “I’m against guys that all they do is debate. Every night they go out and debate. They’re politicians; all talk no action. So I have no idea how I’m going to do.”

Which is a first in this campaign, I believe. I think it’s the first time Donald Trump has admitted that a politician might have a skill that he doesn’t.

With so much riding on this first debate, you’d think he’d be preparing, cramming, rehearsing insults, but apparently he’s going to wing it.

“I have to be myself,” Trump said. “Yeah, I’ll prepare a little bit, but what am I going to do. Romney prepared. He locked himself in a cabin for two weeks and he couldn’t talk.”

Now, sometimes excellent debaters will deliberately lower expectations to lull the others into complacency.

But I’ll tell you what I’d like to see. I’d like to see him deliver on his big applause line &#8212 where he says that big-money people like him have been manipulating politicians for years. Remember what he told Anderson Cooper?

“They will do whatever I want,” he said.

Politicians will do whatever he wants. And why? Because he knows how to use his money and his lobbyists to play the game.

“I’ve had lobbyist and I’ve had some very good ones. They could do anything. They can take a politician and make them jump off this ledge,” Trump has said.

So on Thursday, he should reveal how much each politician on that stage got from him or his lobbyists or his rich friends, and which ledge they jumped off of to get it.

That would probably be all the debate prep he’d need.