My debate thoughts.
It was a painful watch, but it wasn’t as bad as I feared. Still, I doubt many came away more inspired, either. Mainly I thought it was a night of missed opportunities.
Trump won the debate, if for no other reason than he stopped the bleeding. And he was bleeding out coming in. He survived the opening salvo on his X-rated comments, which was bad but could’ve been much, much worse. From there he was on offense and was more sane. His final answer on what he respected about Hillary was about perfect, except it also made her appear better, too. His original critique of Obamacare was the most presidential on public policy I’ve ever seen him in this campaign (his follow up was a rambling mess).
However…
He also missed several opportunities to really hammer her, mainly because he simply can’t contain his penchant for rambling. It is what it is I suppose. Several times he scored some digs at Hillary, but then began mixing metaphors and riffing. Which his adoring throng loves but the rest of Americans either find troubling or perplexing. That said, under the circumstances and given his limitations as a candidate, this was probably the best he could’ve hoped for. The bleeding has been stopped until the next oppo dump arrives.
As for Hillary, she took the opening 10 minutes and hit a line drive single when it should’ve been an easy home run. For reasons I’m sure her advisers don’t have, she didn’t repeatedly hang Trump with all the GOP elected officials who have turned on him this weekend. Several times Trump left her openings, and she didn’t take them but felt the need to justify herself or check all her progressive boxes instead.
Overall, she comes across much more presidential than he does, but that’s not much of a bar. She’s really a weak candidate. As I’ve been saying all year, she cannot win this election. But she could survive it depending on who the GOP nominated.
Finally, I actually thought the moderators did okay overall. Pretty much all the snotty questions you’ve wanted asked of Hillary were asked, which is one of the reasons she was on the defensive all night. Both candidates were interrupted for time. The one exception was Martha Raddatz choosing to debate Trump on foreign policy, which was very unprofessional.
Conclusion: I don’t believe this debate will change the trajectory of the race at all. The analogy I would draw is Trump was in triage, bleeding out, and they got the bleeding stopped. But while they’re on break with the patient stabilized, the doctors/nurses are concerned he has so much internal bleeding that it’s just a matter of time.
- Discussion
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My #debatenight analysis — Trump stopped the bleeding, but there's too much internal damage to save the patient.https://t.co/t0stD9ELNr
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) October 10, 2016
Hillary Clinton probably performed badly enough to keep Trump on the ballot. So big win for her.
— Grant Bosse (@grantbosse) October 10, 2016
I still can’t believe that the debate was still on. I didn’t think Trump would go out there and even if he wanted to I didn’t think the GOP was dumb enough to let him!
That Facebook dog and pony show he put on just before the debate was disgusting. Especially since we know he defended Clinton when all these accusations were going down.
Am I the only one who thought Melania looked like the saddest woman alive? Or am I projecting? No hugs and kisses after that debate from Trump to his wife. He whispered something in her ear, probably “thanks for doing this” and that was it. Their relationship seems very distant. I’ve always thought that.
Melania, like most of the women Trump has conquered, was dazzled by his supposed wealth. If there was any love there, it went out the window once Melania found out what kind of man she is really married to. But she probably feels trapped. He may have threatened her with a custody battle or something else if she dared to leave him. Or she is now unwilling to give up the lifestyle Trump’s supposed wealth brings.
I don’t see any love between the two or with the children. Trump seems incapable of loving anyone. His idea of love is doling out luxuries to his wife and children. I guess the children stay with him because they don’t want to get off the gravy train.
37.2 overnight rating and 53 share for the 2nd debate.
-19% lower than the 1st debate (46.2/63)
-7% lower than 2012 2nd debate (40.0/57)
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) October 10, 2016
— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) October 10, 2016
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