Linda Valdez

opinion columnist

Donald Trump has the advantage going into Monday’s debate: low expectations and a double standard.

Hillary Clinton’s best chance is to channel her inner anger. I'm sure she has plenty.

That's what America needs to see. The sharp-witted Queen of Mean.

The audience for the debate is expected to be huge, and many of those tuning in will be looking for entertainment – not a detailed analysis of foreign and domestic policies.

Trump is the entertainer. Clinton is the wonk.

Give 'em the raging feminist

Her only chance is to deliver her substance with plenty of salt. She needs to give ‘em a show they won’t forget.

The Raging Feminist Show.

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She’s smarter and tougher than Trump. She had to be. Clinton succeeded in a man’s world without being the child of money and privilege.

She did it on smarts, resiliency and tenacity. He's got none of that.

But she had to do it while being nice enough to get Barack Obama to concede in 2008 that she was “likable enough.”

Disconnect the niceness meter

Women Clinton’s age have a built-in niceness meter that’s carefully calibrated to prevent them from seeming too threatening.

She needs to turn that off. It won't be easy. It means breaking decades of old habits.

But who the hell ever asked a man to be “likable?”

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Trump isn’t even expected to be civil.

In addition to the likability standard, Clinton has to measure up to the capable standard, the qualified standard, the intelligence standard, the knowledge standard, the experience standard and the being-forceful-without-being-shrill standard.

Fire it, up, girl

Focusing on all those expectations has made Hillary Clinton seem dull and cold.

I doubt that the real Hillary is either.

America needs to see her inner fire. America needs to see a woman who can keep going despite pneumonia. A woman who can maintain her dignity in the heat of public revelations about her husband’s cheating. A woman who can face down world leaders and a hostile Congress.

That woman is tempered steel. So bring it on, Hillary. Fire up the power mower.

Trump's had it easy

Little rich boy Trump has had it soft all his life. He’s no match for a powerful woman who has disconnected her niceness meter.

Hillary can – and should -- blast Trump off the stage with a full dose of her intelligence and wit.

Now that’s entertainment.