Good day all. Last night was the first of three debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I had planned to watch it last night, but I fell asleep during Gotham and missed it.
I woke up when the news started and after cursing a blue streak for about 2 minutes, turned off the TV and went back to sleep. Since I woke up, I’ve been reading the various reports. The pundits seem to think it was basically a tie between The Donald and Cankles. Lester Holt, the “moderator”, apparently couldn’t just moderate and was seen to be favoring Clinton. I have no first hand information on that and am relying on assorted news and blog sites. (Hopefully, I’m avoiding the echo chamber)
The “Snap” polls taken after the debate said that Trump won it. Even that raving hard right wing fanatic, Michael Moore thinks that Hillary Clinton lost the debate.
Trump, according to reports, generally stayed on message and spoke about policy with a few missiles thrown at Clinton. Clinton appears to have gone on the personal attack route on Trump.
As to the pundits, The Democrats are saying she won, and the Republicans are, depending on who you are listening to, are saying Trump won, Trump tied, Trump wasn’t very good. In other words, no one has any clues at all. In point of fact, this was just the first debate and both sides were “Feeling the other side out” on their responses. I think the next debate is going to be very different from this one. So does Trump.
Donald Trump brushed himself off Tuesday following a rough-and-tumble debate with Hillary Clinton, returning to the campaign trail while warning he may have to “hit her harder” in the next round – as he and his surrogates rapped moderator Lester Holt for skating over the controversies associated with the Democratic nominee.
“[Holt] didn’t ask her about the emails at all. He didn’t ask her about her scandals. He didn’t ask her about [Benghazi],” Trump said. “They were leaving all of her little goodies out.”
From what I’ve been reading regarding Holt, he learned his lesson from Matt Lauer. Under no circumstances do anything that makes Hillary Clinton look bad. This is why Trump may decide to hammer her in their next meeting.
A growing sense among the Republican nominee’s team that the moderator glossed over Clinton’s weak spots could contribute to a tougher tone from Trump in their next encounter in October.
“There was a little bit of an imbalance,” retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn said on Fox News.
That has always been the worry with the debates. As we’ve seen in the past, the moderators generally defer to the Democrat and go after the Republican candidates. Candy “Makes my skin” Crawley was the most blatant example. I’m also not very happy with the debate style. Honestly, I want to see a return to the Lincoln/Douglas style debates. According to Wikipedia:
The format for each debate was: one candidate spoke for 60 minutes, then the other candidate spoke for 90 minutes, and then the first candidate was allowed a 30-minute “rejoinder.” The candidates alternated speaking first. As the incumbent, Douglas spoke first in four of the debates.
Compare that with what they call “Debates” today. As I recall, Trump and Clinton were given a couple of minutes each with Lester Holt adding his $0.02. Those really aren’t debates, they’re commercials. The next debate is scheduled for October 9th, 2016 and will be held at Washington University in Saint Louis. That one will be “moderated” by Anderson Cooper.
The final debate will be October 19th at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and will be “moderated” by Chris Wallace. Wallace is a host on Fox, and hopefully will keep his biases in check for that debate. However that final debate turns out, one thing is certain. What happens in Vegas won’t be staying in Vegas.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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