Preview: More punches expected in the second GOP primary debate

WASHINGTON (SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP) — It's time for round two.

The second GOP Primary debate is just days away, and anticipation is already building for the event featuring eleven candidates vying for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Wednesday's debate takes place at the Reagan Library in California. CNN's Jake Tapper will moderate alongside Dana Bash and radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

Tapper told CNN's Brian Stelter that he and his team were working on questions designed to "pit candidates against the other."

"Look, they're going to want to talk to the camera, and they're going to get out their talking points, but I am going to attempt to get them to address each other and actually debate," Tapper said during the interview on Reliable Sources.

These actual debates are "where voters can learn the most," if they help voters compare the candidates, explained Dr. William Benoit, an expert on political communications and Professor of Communication Studies at Ohio University.

"If the back and forth is personal it doesn't shed much light, if the back and forth is substantive and policy related it's helpful," Dr. Matthew Wilson, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University said.

"Debates can be really productive in terms of learning and getting at the crux of the issues," Dr. Allan Louden, professor and chair of the communications department at Wake Forest University said.

Benoit said that a lack of those meaningful back and forth discussions was something that disappointed him about the first debate.

The one shining example of a meaningful back and forth that Tapper and others have used is an interaction Chris Christie and Rand Paul had while discussing government surveillance.

"That exchange framed them," Louden explained. The two "talked about the tension between civil liberties and security in a way that wouldn't have been talked about otherwise."

"Of course that's good theater, it's also when they get off script slightly and have to respond in the moment, we do get insights," Louden said.

As Wilson pointed out, fostering those productive conversations can be challenging, especially with so many candidates on the stage.

"It's really hard when you've got 11 people up there, because very quickly that will get out of control," if all the candidates want to respond, Wilson explained.

Instead of creating a feeding frenzy, Wilson suggested inviting two candidates to address a specific question. "That would be the only way I can imagine that would work."

"If it gets out of hand you want to say, 'Excuse me, I'm sorry we'd like to let everybody have a turn,'" Tapper said adding that he didn't anticipate having any single candidate being particularly unruly.

Speaking with Tapper on CNN's State of the Union Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that one of the undiscussed issues "is just controlling the debate and making sure that everyone has an ability to speak."

Priebus also predicted that "there will probably be more elbows thrown at that debate."

Still at the top of the polls, Donald Trump seems to be an increasingly necessary target for the other candidates.

In the first debate, candidates mostly danced around Trump, side-stepping the front-runner who has proved he can go nuclear on other candidates without suffering a dip in his poll numbers.

As Alan Schroeder a journalism professor at Northeastern University and author of Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV, pointed out - candidates are coming into this second debate with " more information about where the race stands at this point."

There's a sharper focus, Schroeder said, particularly when it comes to candidate standings. In those rankings Trump has a significant lead. A Washington Post- ABC Poll found 33% of respondents would vote for Trump if the election were held today. After Trump was Dr. Ben Carson with 20% and Jeb Bush with 8%.

While candidates may not have been too concerned with Trump's poll numbers back in August, his continued success is becoming increasingly unnerving to the other candidates "There's a little more whiff of panic in the air of the Republican establishment because we're getting closer and closer to actual voting and he hasn't gone away yet," Wilson said.

Wilson suggested the candidates avoided confronting Trump "in hopes that his campaign would fade away or self-destruct" eventually. "That hasn't happened," Wilson said and now, "candidates feel like now they have to respond to him."

As a result, Wilson predicted viewers will "see more candidates take on Donald Trump more directly."

"The need to respond is becoming a lot stronger," Wilson said, "the closer we get the more they're going to take the gloves off."

" I assume that particularly the front runners might want to be a little more prepared to take him on or challenge him than they were last time" Schroeder suggested.

The candidate who successfully challenges Trump, stands to gain significantly from that victory, Wilson advised.

"If any candidate could really establish himself or herself as the credible, sane alternative to Trump there's a huge advantage. If he singles you out that helps establish you as the not Trump candidate," which Wilson added could have major benefits.

Wilson said he was especially interested in seeing how Carly Fiorina chooses to engage with Trump.

Though low polling numbers kept Fiorina off the main stage in the August debate, Fiorina earned a spot in Wednesday's debate after a solid performance in Fox's August "undercard" forum helped salvage her campaign.

This chance in the spotlight is a major opportunity for Fiorina, one which comes with high expectations.

"She got a lot of momentum out of the first debate. That vaulted her from the second tier to the first tier," Wilson said, cautioning that "it is easy for that momentum to dissipate."

"Can she keep up the momentum she got from the first debate in terms of how well she did and how well received she was?" asked Dr. Kelly Dittmar, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University Camden and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics.

Faced with criticism from Trump, Fiorina speculated that her recent successes are getting to him.

"Maybe, just maybe, I am just getting under his skin a little bit because I am climbing in the polls," Fiorina reportedly told Fox News.

Trump recently targeted Fiorina by criticizing her tenure at Hewlett-Packard, saying her voice gives him a headache, and asking if anyone would vote for "that face."

As the New York Times reported, "their showdown is emerging as one of the most intriguing subplots of the second debate."

"I'm hoping to see if Carly can tame Trump," Louden said. Louden believes Trump gets away with a lot of things and hypothesized that Fiorina's position as a "new kid on the block" and female candidate may allow her to come in and say that Trump is "no good."

Fiorina's presence on the stage, Wilson said is "a big deal for Trump because of the way he's perceived to have treated women in general."

As The Times described, male candidates are often advised that male candidates take a cautious approach to debating female competitors "but almost never before in American presidential politics has a candidate who has drawn charges of sexism and bullying been forced to personally confront the female recipient of his insults on live television."

All of the candidates, Schroeder suggested, want to make sure that they don't do "something that appears anti-female in their dealings with Fiorina." Especially because there's a historic suggestion that Republicans have a problem with female voters. "They don't want the story to become male versus female," he explained, saying it was true for everyone, except for Trump who believes that "a different set of rules applies with him, or no rules at all."

Citing Fiorina's new ad featuring "Faces," Dittmar noted the candidate clearly seems to be using Trump's remarks "as a way to appeal to women," though she questioned whether she would make that appeal "more blatantly on the national stage to set herself aside."

If Trump's comment about Fiorina comes up, Dittmar questioned if she'd use that moment to only focus on responding to Trump's insults.

"Does she use that time to call him out?" Dittmar speculated noting how limited the time is with so many a candidates. Like the first debate, the crowded stage will leave candidates clamoring to get their talking points out in limited periods of time.

As Dittmar explained all of the candidates are "just trying to get their moment to say something and not have Donald Trump dominate another debate."

Dittmar hypothesized the Fiorina's most likely course of action was to pivot quickly from Trump to her agenda because people "don't know who she is yet, she's got to use this moment in the spotlight to talk about who she is, not just respond to criticism."

Though Trump's criticisms have helped other candidates, as he continues to create a media frenzy.

"Trump has made the process itself more interesting, but that's good for the process and other candidates, they're getting tons of exposure because of the interest he's drummed up," Schroeder explained.

Trump has gone so far as to claim credit for the record-breaking ratings in the last debate. While it's best to just wait and see what numbers the second debate pulls in, experts predicted the numbers would once again remain high.

"I think it'll have a higher viewership than primary debates usually do," Schroeder said.

"People seem more engaged earlier in the process this time, part of that is just the pure spectacle of the Trump factor," Wilson explained.

"The Trump factor is absolutely what's going on here," Schroeder stated.