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Bernie Sanders has decided it's not good enough to "just be himself" in the next debate.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Sanders did no formal debate prep ahead of the first Democratic primary debate—no rehearsals with a stand-in for Hillary Clinton, no canned lines. Aides thought the consequences of practice debates would be dire: “We don’t want to stiffen him up. We don’t want to turn him into Henry Kissinger.”

Now the Sanders team thinks a little practice won’t be so bad after all. He’s doing mock debates with an aide standing in for Clinton. And while he said he was sick of hearing about Clinton’s “damn emails” in the last debate, this time he’s ready to attack her on the subject “if asked about it,” The New York Times reports. Hint, hint, moderators.