Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Take on the debate

It's been about 24 hours since the most anticipated debate of all time and we're still reeling.   It was certainly one which seemed to meet the massive expectations for any veteran political junkie even if it didn't give the casual fan the kind of fireworks they had hope for.  I have read all the reviews, have seen a few polls and have discussed it in person with a number of people and although last night I felt that Trump had gotten the better part of Hillary, today I'm not so sure. 

What was interesting was that for all the talk of stamina, it seemed that Trump was the one who ran out of steam late, while Hillary goaded him from one trap to another.  Hillary wasn't great and was way too scripted early but she found her rhythm, playing against Trump to stick his foot in his mouth is like waiting for the Jets season to end, you know it will happened but you just don't know when.

 Trump obviously had his moments, any time he can filibuster through a field filled with landmines, is a win but a couple of things stood out to us.. a few that he said and a few he did not.

-          His prideful acknowledgement that he pays no taxes at all will not sit well with those trying to make ends-meet..

-          The image of a 400 pound slob sitting topless in his parent's basement chugging diet-cokes while hacking Hillary's server is one which is now burned into the back of my brain.

-          The thought of little Baron being that boy in a few years, is even more troubling, apparently he does have great computer skills.

-          Hillary putting Trump on the defensive with his derogatory and sexists comments where a perfect response and put a nice bow on her campaign message which continues to be that he is just too unstable to be trusted

-          Anybody who makes the argument that they have a great temperament is guaranteed to have a terrible temperament.. it's the kind of thing a guy does who brags about his business acumen..show me, don't tell me about how great your abilities are..

-          But to me the most telling thing about Trump's stamina was that when he was given a perfect volley by Lester Holt when he brought up the cyber warfare, he spit the bit.   That was perfectly set up for him to hammer her on her server but instead he went to some convoluted argument about some fat kid... it was entertaining but he lost on substance, as usual.  

 

Hillary wasn't perfect by any stretch, when she goes wonky, people turn to the Saints game, when she gets defensive, people look to see if there is an Apprentice rerun and when she gives you that weird chipmunk smile, people check their teeth for spinach.   But I thought her weakest moment was not in what she did say  but what she didn't   

I thought the perfect response to the Trump sexist thing would have been the following..   'Donald, you claim to respect women but you've spent the entire night shushing and interrupting me, how about a little bit of chivalry?" 

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