Donald J. Trump, in the First Presidential debate, finally put the Republican Party out of its misery. At least all those Republicans that had not already abandoned him. He obliterated any hope that the “real” Trump would finally emerge and/or his handlers could once and for all talk sense into him. In fairness to Trump was it reasonable to expect his behavior to change after seventy years? As the saying goes, “You can’t each an old dogs new tricks”. If Hillary was scripting this she couldn’t have done any better. In fact her team would have told her, “You are laying onto thick. Who can believe that he will do all that?” But for those of you who thought you fell asleep and dreamt it all you can check and see whether it really happened on You Tube. Eleven million people already have, and to coin a phrase, “Believe Me”, its real.
TRUST ME I’M IN REAL ESTATE
From the word go Trump made it quite clear to the eighty - four million viewers that he didn’t think it was important to prepare for the debate. His message - “Trust me. What do you have to loose?”. What is more he looked a bit miffed when Hillary claimed that the time in mugging up facts on the USA was not wasted as she was preparing to be President too. Now didn’t his new debate team tell him that the camera would be on him all the time? Of course they did. In his own family box at the Republican Presidential Congress there was a notice to all to be on their guard as cameras pan in for reaction every moment. Now do you really want a President who pulls faces, and drinks as much water as Marco?
INTERRUPTIONS AND ONE WORD WONDERS
Then he interrupted Hillary fifty - five times. Those interruptions beat his record on lying. According to Politico he tells a lie only once every three minutes fifteen seconds. (Jay H. Ell can already can hear his naysayers screaming, “What about Hillary?”). For good measure he interrupted the Moderator too speaking over him. Poor Donald he never will learn. He always had this problem that’s why he was sent to naval school but obviously that didn’t help. After all this he claimed that he had the best temperament to be President. The audience who had promised to shut up burst out into laughter. If the Republican nominee for President can interrupt so could they.
There were so many damning one word responses that came out of Trump’s mouth in speaking over Hillary that one wonders what he was thinking, assuming, of course, that he does:
To Hillary’s exclamation, that she would soon be blamed for everything he blurted, “Why Not?’
To her attack that he probably didn’t pay Federal Taxes, he bragged that makes him smart!
To her accusation that he hoped for the housing collapse where hundreds of thousands lost their homes, he smirked to the effect that that’s called Business.
Dear dear, Trump will be Trump.
TRUMP MEANS “NEVER SAY YOUR’E SORRY”
Then his endearing feature “never say your'e sorry” was on display, “Big Time”. The birther issue alone should disqualify him from being President however he never knows when to call it quits. He has openly perpetuated the preposterous infamy for four years that the first African American President was not born in America but he claimed, in front of eighty - four million viewers, that it had nothing to do with him. It was the Clinton campaign. He then went on to name the Clinton individuals who had admitted their culpability. (The latter denied after the debate that they had said anything of the sort). So not only was he not going to apologize he wanted congratulations for ending the controversy by forcing Obama to produce his birth certificate. When confronted that he was regarded as the face of the birther campaign perpetuating the calumny continuously he shouted down the Moderator and of course Hilary.
A similar sequence of making a worse matter a catastrophe was doubling down that he never supported the Iraq war. Again the same old same old. In fact he wanted credit for warning what would happen. The Moderator got it wrong. Then he embellished all with his revisionist history which is another feature of his style. - Obama pulled out of Iraq thereby creating ISIS. (One lie after the other). Obama screwed up by not stealing Iraq’s oil.
Carrying on like a one man wrecking crew is the reason Nancy Pelosi has described him as “The Gift That Keeps On Giving”. By giving the birther story new legs especially with the new lies that the Clinton operatives started the story he has provoked Michelle Obama, Hillary’s most popular surrogate, to let all know how hurtful Trump was and that the birther campaign was simply designed to undermine her husband’s Presidency.
Then to prove again the fact that The Donald can not leave bad enough alone, when confronted with his sadistic, misogynistic, racial and demeaning behavior towards a former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who he stereotyped by calling Miss Housekeeping, he went on the rampage the following day justifying his gross behavior. “Machado was a problem as she put on weight”. By making Machado his talking point even after his disastrous debate he helped catapult her into celebrity status. She was interviewed on talk shows confirming how he bullied and demeaned her. Two days after the rumble on the debating floor Trump’s Machado behavior was a segment on every news channel. Fox News helped flame the issue by running a story that Miss Machado allegedly threatened a Venezuelan Judge allowing the Trump surrogates to spin this as justification for his treatment of her.
BRAGGING RIGHTS.
Trump claimed victory quoting phone in polls in right wing media and ignoring the scientific polls that reported that he had been creamed. Sixty - two percent of the viewers in a CNN poll thought Hillary had won and twenty - seven percent chose Trump. Reuters and the NBC polls showed a similar sized victory for Hillary. He chastised his team that reported to him that the debate had not gone well. All reminiscent of Hitler’s statement in the bunker, “Don’t bring me defeatist statistics”. In addition the Trump team were given a pep talk to talk the debate up with “high energy”. Hillary’s succinct and only comment - “When you complain about the microphone you didn’t have a good debate”.
In fairness Trump did win one metric. The Fact Checkers stated that he won the lies or misrepresentations division 34 to 4. As Trump might argue he broke his record by almost having one lie per minute.
GIVE A THOUGHT TO HILLARY’S EXCELLENCE
The media have been obsessed with covering Trump for whatever reason including the motive of ratings. Whatever the motive however it is because Trump has given them a headline a day. He in his megalomaniacal way has been only to happy to make this election a referendum about himself. In this milieu it has been difficult to be a serious policy candidate and get noticed when a reality star grabs the headlines by building a wall across America, by banning all Muslims from entering the country, expelling 11 million Latinos or calling woman pigs, dogs or housekeepers if they are happen to be Latino or Pocohantas if they, like Senator Warren, have Indian ancestry.
However, the debate forum gave her in an equal share of the oxygen and more importantly allowed a comparison between her and the windbag. Now even the partisan polarized electorate recognized that she outshone him in every department and had a glimpse of why the current President and his wife believe that she is the most well prepared candidate ever. Also the way she clinically disemboweled Trump was an object lesson in politics. Now in case anyone has forgotten Trump is no pushover he demolished fifteen of the best of what the Republican Party could offer. Hillary made him look like an ignorant hack. In addition she provided specifics on a range of policies, showed a depth of knowledge, exhibited temperament and judgement.
WHAT’S NEXT
Trump will stump along and his loyal adoring base of at least forty percent will hang in come hell or how water. Some of the latter, however, are not so adorinng and are holding their noses, the future of the Supreme Court being uppermost in their minds. What those leaders and opinion makers fail to appreciate that by supporting him they are co signing the death certificate of the Republican Party they are trying to save. As Jennifer Rubin rightwing commentator has said they will be answerable to history. The campaign is in a mess and their is no comprehensive ground game to schelp in the votes. He has to wait till the next debate where he can try and appeal to that other twenty percent by appearing a more acceptable Commander in Chief than the Democratic contender.
Hillary Clinton in her attempt to seize that middle twenty percent will have an army of surrogates to stomp the trail for her, covering every base. The team includes the Obamas with their lock on the Obama coalition - minorities, women and youth. Warren and Sanders will try and rally “The Movement” while good old Joe Biden will connect with the blue collar workers that have formed the backbone of the Trump revolution and his takeover of the Republican Party.
What else is allowing Trump even to be a factor? It is the general anti establishment mood in the country not to mention him representing America in the world wide xenophobic wave. Hillary Clinton even though she has been, at every stage of her life, a mover for change, is ironically being cast as the poster child of the Establishment, first by Bernie Sanders and now by Trump.
As matters stand Jay H. Ell sticks to his initial assessment that Clinton will triumph and it is a question of by how much. After her stellar performance and Donald’s juvenile display it is very difficult to see him making up the ground he needs to win. Hillary is far too professional to take anything for granted. Elections are won and ultimately lost on the ground game and Clinton has been working on this from day one.
One fact is for certain that those who are supporting Trump and were hoping that he would lend their decision respectability have been put out of their misery. It is not going to happen. Trump will be Trump. He has no desire to be anyone else.
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