clinton and donald trump get ready to square off in the second debate. the setting this time, a town hall with questions from the audience. campaign insiders say trump prepared for the match-up. does that mean a change in strategy? will we see a more aggressive clinton? joining me now are michael brownstein, brown stein and weaver, a democratic and strategic messaging firm. his clients include the new jersey and pennsylvania state committees and collin hannah, the president of let freedom ring. former chester county commissioner with a long history of working with republican candidates, welcome to you both. >> thanks. let's talk about the town hall format. explain what we'll see tonight. >> the town hall format has questions coming from the audience. in most cases they have been prescreened and so that people have been selected who might have submitted a number of questions and they decide three or four or five or six that are particularly on target. they will come from the audience. it won't be the same head to head with a moderator in between format that we saw in the first debate. >> and mike, does this make it a little bit easier or more difficult for the candidates to predict the questions? >> town halls are typically tougher to do. they are a little harder to predict but everybody kind of knows, some of the questions are prescreened about what those topics are going to be. mostly, where candidates get into trouble with body language. how they communicate to the audience and how they deal with the question that's being asked and you don't they deal with the other candidate. people are watching the interaction and want to know a lot about how the candidate interacts with other people. if they look like they are too aggressive or encroaching on their space, that could be a problem. blocking space for candidates during these types of debates and town hall settings is something that people advise campaigns like myself usually very concerned about when we're in a town hall style atmosphere. >> respectful interaction is one of the keys to making a town hall appearance work. so when somebody form lates a question that may not be in precisely correct terms, the candidate needs to respond in a way that truly respects the questioner and doesn't suggest that the question is off base or something like that. if do that, you lose the room in a hurry. if you respect the average citizen who makes a question or makes a point, then you can start to win the room over. there's a fascinating dynamic in a town hall that isn't present in a typical toe to toe moderator debate. >> can this make or break or be a turning point in the campaign? >> sure, it can. you present the candidate in what might be considered a realistic environment, more of a retail politics environment. from everything i've heard donald trump is quite good on the stump on interacting individually with citizen voters, potential campaign workers and the like. and the rap is that secretary clinton continued not to be able to relate as well in retail politics setting. she acknowledges that when she said she doesn't have the gifts that her husband has, for instance. >> mike, i'm sure you want to chime in on that. >> for sure. i think this is going to be a good format for secretary clinton. when she is one on one, she does a lot better with people that she's talking to one on one. for those that have seen her or had the ability to spend time with her, one of the things that publicly one on one she's extremely good. if she sort of takes the time to focus on the audience and focus on who's asking the question, she's going to do very well in the format. i suspect you're going to see a lot of empathy from her and candor. some of the things the other formats do not specifically allow for. i think this will be a good thing for hillary clinton and i suspect we'll see that coming out of the debate. >> colin, we learned that governor chris christie has been helping donald trump with his preparation. is chris christie the right person to consult on this kind of a debate? >> he's more like trump naturally i think than he is like clinton. i'm not sure he's the best person to be playing clinton. on the other hand, i think that because he is in some ways like trump, he can advise trump but can't really play the stand-in role. >> in terms of stand-in role for hillary clinton, do we know what kind of prep she's getting or who she should be listening to? >> i think that really when you watched her in the first debate, she really had this down to a science. her team did a very good job of prepping her. remember, the bar was set very low for donald trump in the first debate. literally the bar was on the ground. all he had to do was stand there and look presidential. not get into some of the things that he had been doing before. and he couldn't even really do that. i can say trump will have to react to some of the strategy she had beforehand. you could see when you got off the stage, he was very agitated. i suspect we're going to see more donald trump than we saw in the primary, which i don't think is to his advantage because of the way hillary clinton has been able to paint him. we'll see more of that in this debate. ultimately that's going to be problematic for him and voters in swing states like pennsylvania. >> do we anticipate that donald trump may try to bring up former president clinton's past indiscretions as he brought up, didn't bring up during the last debate? >> it's hard to tell, you have to have the stage properly set in the question to do that. if he forces it, i think it would be counter productive. if somehow the nature of a given question sets the stage for that, then he may well go forward with it. >> and michael, i guess on that note, in terms of not taking the bait or not forcing an issue, what do you -- what would you -- advice would you give to hillary clinton? >> i suspect that what she should do, she should sort of try to get him into a position where he's uncomfortable. what we saw in the first debate, she really put him off foot. it was like a really good boxing match. the competitors are not necessarily -- they don't necessarily know what combination is being put together. trump himself likes to reach for shiny objects. he gets distracted very easily. when she starts talking about his personal wealth, you could see visibly with the screen split that this was a big problem for him. he jumped at it and this has been a huge -- this was a huge problem for him. i think if he does things like that in this debate, he'll wind up having the same issue he did last time. >> he needs to present hillary clinton not as candidate of the status quo but as the candidate of the wrong track. survey after survey shows that 70% of americans on average feel that the nation is not on the right path, it's in fact on the wrong track. he needs to paint her as the candidate of the wrong track, rather than simply the candidate of the status quo. if he does that, he'll do well. if he can get carson to get a spot for him in philadelphia, he'll do even better. >> that's coming up later on @ issue. there has to be a real stress factor going into any president shl shal debate. but still this has to be stressful and anxiety producing. talk to us about that. >> candidates can bunch up for sure. when you're advising them, it's a little like if you're watching a tightrope in between buildings never want to look down. if they really understand what the gravity of the situation is, and they start thinking about the consequences, they are never going to be able to get through the debate. the object is to keep the candidate comfortable, insulate them in an environment, prepare them for the types of things that are going to go on in the debate. overprepare them if you can. those will lead to a comfortable performance. >> i don't think overpreparation works but i do think trying to focus on the questioner with respect works very effectively in a town hall situation. i hope he achieves it. >> don't look down. thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, rosemary. ♪ >> next on nbc 10 @ issue, a band with a perfect pitch to millennials, mixing music with voter registration. if you want to register to votes in the november election, time is running out. right now the candidates are working to sign up as many millennials as possible. recent findings from the pugh research center show a whopping 126 million millennial and gen-xors are registered to vote. two men who are pushing to make sure they do vote, andy burnstein of head count and mark brownstein, bass player of the disco-biscu disco-biscuits. >> tell us about head count and how it got started. >> we started head count now more than 12 years ago with the idea that there was so many people just going to concerts, that's where people are and if we can get them registered to vote and out to the poll, that's a way we could make a difference. we started with mark bands and phish and members of the grateful dead and expanded to 100 bands and worked with pearl jam and jay-z and started in philly with the disco-biscuits. >> they started at penn, my alma mater and grown from there. are they engaged? >> in the primary cycle, the millennials were very, very engaged and ultimately i think that what ended up happening was more millennials voted for bernie sanders than hillary clinton and donald trump combined. so there's a little bit less enthusiasm coming into the general election here and it's somewhat of an uphill battle to get them registered and out to the polls especially. >> what did they say when they come up to your booth at the concerts? >> we hear a lot of things, you hear my vote doesn't count. it's rigged. you hear i'm not excited about either candidate. and but what we try to do is have a conversation and one of the things that i'll say to any person feeling that way, you know, there's a lot of people who feel the same way you do. and if you collectively are a reliable voting bloc, the world is going to change, slowly but in the direction you want it to. but if no one feels like you votes, the world will change in the other direction. that's really what's at stake in this election. there's no doubt a lot of people aren't excited good these candidates, but everyone feels very passionately about the direction of this country and what they care about. if people stay home, then everyone else gets to decide. >> i think it's important to bring up that it's not just about the presidential election. it's really, really important to highlight to the millennials that there's down ballot candidates and issues across the board all over the country that are germane for the lives of these millennials there's issues that have come up on immigration and same-sex marriage and nonpartisanish issues, getting money out of the politics. that's an issue that resonates on the both sides. if we're able to connect and let them realize this isn't just about the two people at the top but the entire picture of what the government is going to look like, congress, senate, and a lot of other issues that are being voted on, there's a chance to engage these people. >> how do your band mates feel about you getting on board with this? >> when we started this, there was a little bit of apathy and reluck tans to get involved in politics in general and reluck tans to put yourself out there as anything other than a escape from the real world. that's where we're coming from and why we started head count. there was so much apathy in 2004. i think it was a process to get everybody on board and even within the members of our band, it became about this isn't just about voting, there's other issues and things that we could go. there's a foundation and organization 10,000 volunteers we can use to advance whatever issue it is that is interesting to you and with our band, the guitarist of my band is very into the issue of renewable energy. so a couple years ago, why don't we do a benefit here in philadelphia and raise money to put solar panels on a -- the greenfield school and downtown philadelphia. we raised about $35,000 and partnered with a solar company and we put in solar panels. so that's just another example of something that we've done to engage musicians. we feel that having the musicians get engaged is really, really important to get the kids engaged. >> big question. how do you actually get these millennial voters, the people you've registered, worked so hard to go out to the polls? >> it's a long process, but i think mark and i have both over the years really tried to be a good presence am the community and make people feel good about their role as citizen rather than thinking of it as an obligation. >> thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> if you want to vote in november's election and you're not registered, time is running out. the deadline in pennsylvania is tuesday. it's october 15th in delaware and in new jersey, you must register by october 18th. head count will be at the bob we're concert on october 12th helping to register new jersey and delaware voters and new jersey nj visits have a chance on the 16th before the beats antique concert. >> next on nbc 10 at issue. john clark joins us with a peek into wentz's life. . he is the man of the moment, carson wentz, and it's not just philly fans excited, the home state of north dakota, can't get enough of their hometown hero. john clark recently returned from north dakota where wentz has become a folk hero. >> thanks for having me back here. >> my understanding is that this idea was conceived over breakfast between you and rod kesener and this became a passion, we have to go to fargo to find out where he's from. >> it's a different culture, coming from north dakota to a football crazed passionate town like philadelphia. we're not exactly as nice as the people we met in fargo. to see this juxtaposition of carson coming from an area like that and immediately coming into philadelphia and nfl, and dominating and really doing a lot of unprecedented things as a quarterback, a rookie quarterback, who missed a lot of preseason, we wanted to find out how did this guy become the quarterback and the person that he is. that's why we went out there. >> so what did you learn? >> i think it all starts number one with morals and values and people out there are extremely nice. they have a lot of morals and values and they are very good people. carson is a very good person from everyone we learned talking to people. the other thing is how competitive he was as a kid. his older brother was supposed to be the stud at football, so he wanted to compete with his older brother. then he only played a year senior year at starting quarterback in high school. only two years as a starting quarterback in college and then you saw in the preseason with the eagles, only a quarter and a half and got hurt. he's able to pick things up so quickly. and i think he's highly intelligent. was valedictorian in high school, never got less than an a. his intelligence has really helped him and growing as 5'8" to 6'5" senior year. physical skills and intelligence and really, when you see him in a film room and breaking down film, he can make quick immediate decisions like, not a lot of people can. has really a photographic memory. the coaches all along the way, you only have to tell him something once. he picks things up extremely quickly. >> even though he doesn't have necessarily this long storied history of playing football forever since he was a kid starting, it almost doesn't matter. >> you know what, it is miraculous how he's able to pick things up so quickly. we got to sit down with him here in philly when he came back and he said really it's not just the physical reps, he really can look at things and the mental reps can get him ready to go. senior year of college, they are on their way to a possible national championship. and he gets hurt. devastating wrist injury. he may not play again the rest of the year. he came back in for the national championship game and could have lost some draft status if he didn't play well at all and also, the whole time, he was getting the backup ready and reviewing film of the backup. he's a total team guy. makes everyone else around him better and he just loves football. like he is obsessed with football. >> loves eagles? >> absolutely. >> what about the people from fargo? >> wow, this is vikings country out there, it's next to minnesota but everywhere we went, home coming, home coming paraid, just around town, you walk around and see carson wentz eagles jersey, whole section in a sporting goods store. there's a bank out there, we want to sell more mortgages, we're going to make a deal with carson went, if you buy a mortgage, you get a free carson wentz autographed eagles jerseys. he has commercials everywhere. eagles fans are everywhere in north dakota and they adomted the eagles and get together on sundays -- it used to be saturdays with north dakota state. now every sunday at bars and different places watching carson wentz play. he's really an inspiration, like a folk hero and great representative for them out there because of the type of person he is. not just because he's having so much success but he represents our morals and type of people we are so well on the national stage. >> and making them very proud. >> yeah. >> he's been back to fargo since this all started. >> last week, when we were there with him, yeah. he wanted to lay low when he was out there because he wanted the attention to be on the team. he can't go anywhere out there. his brother has to call ahead to restaurants and see if there's people there. he is a rock star. he's on billboards everywhere. he is like some people have said the greatest athlete to come out of there since roger maris. >> you bring up his brother. he does have a brother who dropped everything and moved to philadelphia with his fiance, right? >> that's a great point. you wonder how a kid from north dakota can handle everything offed in new found fame. his brother is living him in a nice place that reminds him of north dakota far outside of the city. but i think his brother is a big part of his life, helping him with all of the other things so he doesn't get distracted and can concentrate on football. >> john clark from csn, thanks for being with us. >> thank you so much. >> this has been one big highlight for your special coming up this friday called from wentz he came. it's this friday, october 14th at 7:00 in the evening, only on nbc 10 and csn. >> that's it for this edition of "10!" at issue. you can join us again every saturday morning beginning at 5:00 and sundays at 5:30. have a great sunday. go eagles. ♪ cozy up this fall with dunkin's coffee and espresso flavors. sip salty and sweet with our new salted caramel macchiato or drink in the season with the classic taste of pumpkin. america runs on dunkin'. now dd perks members can order ahead, skip the line in store, and keep on. whoo-hoo-hoo! ♪ captions paid for by nbc-universal television charlotte, north carolina, home base for so many of nascar's teams and today charlotte motor speedway is the site for the first race of the round of 12, second round of the playoffs. win this afternoon for any one of 12 daring drivers would guarantee their dream of winning the sprint cup championship remains alive. ♪