Reviewing The Debate
The Moderators
Early on in the debate Trump rightly said that the debate was now three on one. Anderson Cooper and Martha Radditz made it their mission to boost Clinton and trip up Trump. The moderators shushed Trump supporters several times during the night while ignoring all but one of the cheers for Clinton. The questions themselves seemed designed to put Trump on the defensive and when Trump pivoted to one of his priorities Cooper and Radditz snarked that he had not answered the question. Were those two trying to outdo each other, make Lester Holt seem reasonable by comparison, or, again by comparison, out Matt Lauer as some closet Republican sympathizer?
The ‘Undecided Voters’
Many in the media seem to believe that “objective journalist” means the same thing as Democrat operative. Sort of the way that George Stephanopolous was a Clinton campaign worker in the early nineties but can host news programs and give commentary on the air without a great big asterisk next to his name. Connections between journalists and the Democratic party could fill several books.
So right out of the gate was a teacher that was concerned about the behaviors being modeled for children that were assigned to follow the presidential campaign for school. Granted, candidates for President should present their best face to the world. This question was clearly in reference to the recent bomb that had dropped with remarkably convenient timing right before the debate. Yes, Trump is brash but notice that being a gentleman got Mitt Romney no credit four years earlier. After he had been safely dispatched both Clinton and Obama could speak about how graciously Romney had campaigned… and lost. In the moment he was an evil corporate raider that delighted in firing people, torturing his dog, and giving the relatives of employees cancer. Civility is only important when it helps the Republican loose.
The ‘undecided’ teacher has clearly never listened to secondary grades students when they think an adult can’t hear them. So many kids listen to music so filthy that it’s unlikely anything said by Trump would have even registered.
She was also curiously uninterested in the importance of modeling honesty for the children. Trump is prone to hyperbole; Clinton has lied endlessly about her email server, what really happened in Benghazi, and so many other things going back to the start of her time in public life. Is lying and getting away with it part of the school curriculum?
The ‘I am a Muslim, why do you hate me’ question was also an expected plant. Funny how liberals usually pride themselves on their ability to discern subtle nuance suddenly become very rigid in their thinking when it suits them.
Donald Trump was not referring to assimilated Muslims that want to be part of American society. He learned from watching Europe’s experience in absorbing millions of Muslims that arrived without any vetting and clearly included terrorists.
Even questioners who didn’t intend to be political fell into the trap of liberal thinking. Ken Bone rightly asked about energy policy but then had the obligatory segue into so called “green energy.” Unfortunately green energy is competitive largely because of subsidies which affect other parts of the economy. Spain tried to go the green energy route and found that every ‘green job’ cost them 2.2 normal jobs.
Bizarre Moment
I thought the fly was on my television. Why didn’t Clinton react?
Her Right Hand Person: The Fact Checkers
Clinton again made reference to fact checkers being hard at work correcting Trump. Why couldn’t she do it herself? Why is a skilled debater relying on others when she can make her own points?
Advantage Trump
Trump did much better in this debate. Clearly the Chris Christie school of debate prep can work wonders even on the most undisciplined candidate.
Trump hit Clinton on her foreign policy failures as Secretary of State. He hit her on her lack of achievement as a US Senator.
Trump did a competent job of staying on message during the questions about his off the record conversation back in 2005. He even managed to turn some of Clinton’s sudden concern for the welfare of women back on her record with women. Some of Bill Clinton’s accusers were present at the debate as well as Kathy Shelton, a rape victim whose attacker was defended by none other than Hillary Clinton. Every defendant deserves his day in court but Clinton laughed when she said that she could never again trust a polygraph when her guilty client passed the test. Hardly a woman concerned about female victims everywhere.
Trump also commented on the millions of dollars that she has racked up in public life; how she has done well for herself.
I ask Hillary, why doesn’t — she made $250 million by being in office. She used the power of her office to make a lot of money. Why isn’t she funding, not for $100 million, but why don’t you put $10 million or $20 million or $25 million or $30 million into your own campaign?
It’s $30 million less for special interests that will tell you exactly what to do and it would really, I think, be a nice sign to the American public. Why aren’t you putting some money in? You have a lot of it. You’ve made a lot of it because of the fact that you’ve been in office. Made a lot of it while you were secretary of state, actually. So why aren’t you putting money into your own campaign? I’m just curious.
That went by without further comment but Trump may have been laying the groundwork for a new attack. How did the Clintons become so fabulously wealthy in public service? Where did that money come from? It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
This time around it’s advantage Trump. He gave thoughtful answers with much more detail than in round one and he successfully parried on most hostile questions.