Mr. Schwartz offered his help to the Clinton campaign as part of his long (and possibly futile) effort to make up for the guilt he feels about setting Mr. Trump on a path to fame by ghostwriting his book. “I don’t think I can ever even the score; I don’t think I can ever set it totally straight,” he says. All he can do now, he says, is “say the truth that I know in the service of trying to help save the country and the world from a guy who is exceptionally dangerous.”

In the episode, we explore the profoundly contrasting style of preparation and showmanship that Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton bring to the debate with my colleagues, Frank Bruni, an opinion columnist, and Amy Chozick, a reporter who has covered Mrs. Clinton for the last two years.

“I think of Trump as a toddler sitting in a high chair,” Mr. Bruni says. “And his advisers are saying ‘Donald, you must get through the meal without throwing your spaghetti on the wall.’ So the question is, will they successfully persuade him not to throw his spaghetti on the wall before the debate ends?”

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