How are GOP candidates preparing for their first debate?
You can ask Ohio Gov. John Kasich how he's preparing for Thursday night's Republican primary debate - the first of the 2016 cycle - but that doesn't mean he'll give you an answer.
"I'm not going to talk about the way I prepare," he recently told The Sunday Times. "It's nobody's business."
Kasich, the last entrant to jump into the 17-person GOP primary scrum, barely qualified for the debate, placing 10th in a polling average that Fox News, the debate's sponsor, used to whittle the primetime debate to the top 10 candidates.
Kasich's advisers, at least, have been more forthcoming about his approach to the debate, and they're keenly aware that he won't be the only person on stage. Eyeing the rise of businessman Donald Trump, who has trash-talked his way to the top of the GOP primary field, Kasich's chief strategist John Weaver tweeted last week, "Imagine a NASCAR driver mentally preparing for a race, knowing one of the drivers will be drunk. That's what prepping for this debate is like."
Some candidates, asked about their debate prep strategies, have offered jokes.
"I've got a really fat book, and I'm sleeping on it at night, and I'm hoping all of that information will get inside my brain," Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told RealClearPolitics last week.
In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Paul added that he's not planning on pulling any punches. "My staff is all saying, 'Oh, no, we need to be cautious,'" he said. "I like to mix it up, so I plan on getting into it with the other candidates."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who last participated in a political debate during his 2002 reelection bid, has been preparing for the debate for the last several weeks. Now that the big day has arrived, he's taking it easy -- going to the gym, attending Mass with his wife, and doing some last-minute emailing with friends and advisors.
When the circus begins, the Florida Republican will try to deliver an optimistic message about restoring American leadership in the world and economic growth that affects all Americans. He wants to present himself as a "doer" as opposed to the "talker" he says President Obama is. Bush will attempt to steer away from his attacking fellow GOP opponents like Trump, who has repeatedly sniped at him during the campaign, and instead highlight his record as governor of Florida.
While Bush has been preparing fairly extensively, others have adopted a more laid back approach to the big event.
"For the last 25 years, I have been doing a lot of public speaking before huge audiences under all kinds of circumstances," retired neurosurgeon told Fox News on Wednesday night when asked whether he has any anxiety about the debate. "That's not going to be bothersome to me."
Carson suggested he'd prepared some "stunners" to light up the debate stage, but added, "I don't want to tell you my stunners now."
"I only need to talk about what's true. I don't have to try to remember talking points or multiple things that people have told me. I just need to talk about what's true. I think people will see that," he added. "If you use inflammatory language, people are not able to hear your message. I have concentrated more on getting the message across. I think that will come through loud and clear tomorrow."
And Trump, the man of the hour, has emphasized that he's not a practiced debater, like some others in the GOP field - but that doesn't necessarily mean he's spending extra time in practice.
"I don't stand up and debate like these politicians. They are all talk, no action. All they do is, their whole life, they debate and then they don't get things done. I get things done," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
Trump said he's preparing "by seeing what's going on" rather than using pollsters to test his message - a practice that he said leaves other politicians "frozen."
At least one of Trump's advisers has confirmed Trump's come-what-may approach to debate prep.
"Trump doesn't rehearse," a senior Trump advisor told ABC News on Wednesday. "I have no idea what to expect...I'm just as clueless as you about what he'll do."