Dilma being angry is a guarantee of good performance in debates.

Dilma is simply a newcomer to politics. Putting her in a debate with veterans like Aécio Neves or Marina Silva is downright cowardly. Her inexperience and the adverse political landscape make life even more difficult for someone unaccustomed to the brazenness that politics demands.

Politicians, first and foremost, have to be cold. Being brazen helps a lot. It allows for the strategy of Marina Silva, for example, who says nothing and manages to be understood due to her facial expressions, which announce that she is saying something without actually saying anything at all.

Dilma's inexperience in debates and the difficult political climate constitute a huge problem; she always starts debates nervously. This time, in the SBT/UOL debate, she even acknowledged her nervousness by getting the names of those she was going to ask questions wrong.

Dilma always starts debates stuttering. She makes endless pauses between sentences, giving the impression that she has forgotten what she was going to say. But she has an anti-panic button, and her marketing team needs to find a way to activate it so that she performs well in public speaking, both at rallies and in debates.

Moreover, anyone who knows Dilma's recent history a little better remembers the thrashing she gave to the Democrat Agripino Maia in Congress when she responded to him about why she said, in an interview, that she lied "a lot" to the torturers of the military dictatorship, arguing that lying under torture is almost an obligation.

Dilma, when indignant, surpasses herself. It was no different in the SBT/UOL debate.

Marina, for example, after giving a scandalously pessimistic interpretation of the country's situation, asks Dilma: "What went wrong in your government?". Dilma, visibly indignant, adopts that air of impatience – which is almost comical – and retorts: "What went wrong is that we lifted 30 million Brazilians out of poverty."

Bingo! The president's mere gestures of indignation are enough to embarrass her opponent. It's instinctive body language.

But that's not all. When angry, Dilma doesn't stutter. The words flow, they become natural. She's a different person when provoked.

It was the same thing with Aécio Neves. He said that the federal government doesn't send money to his state – Minas Gerais, not Rio de Janeiro, as many might think – and Dilma, indignant at the more than verifiable lie, feigned the same impatience and said that he, besides having a "weak memory," is "misinformed."

It's more how she said it than what she actually said. It was funny and sounded true. When angry, Dilma conveys to those who see her that her reaction is indignation in the face of a lie.

Aside from that, it was fun. Levy Fidelix cursing the media and giving a fiery, pamphleteering speech like any university student because his party had been called a "rent-a-party" by journalist Kennedy Alencar was priceless.

Eduardo Jorge saying he had nothing to do with the fight between the two was legendary.

"Pastor" Everaldo repeatedly mentioning "rape," while pathetic, was also funny.

You can't expect more than that from debates of this kind, with so many participants. No topic will be explored in depth. In these debates, the mise-en-scène matters more than the words. Nobody pays attention to what is said, but to HOW it is said.

It's impossible to say for sure, but it's more likely that Monday's debate was won by no one. In fact, among the leading candidates, Dilma may have scored some points due to her sharp responses to Marina and Aécio.

Giving curt answers is rarely a good tactic. Unless it's in the particular situation in which Dilma gave them in this debate, that is, after being bombarded by almost all the candidates and having been attacked by those to whom she responded.

If the marketing strategists find a way to make Dilma arrive at debates and rallies already angry, no one will stand a chance. And if what the pro-PSDB media legends say is more than that, it won't take much to anger the president. Let's hope it's true.