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Clinton/Trump Debate Wrap Up
This is a preview from Tuesday morning’s The Daily Shot newsletter. Subscribe here free of charge.
In case you live under a rock or something, on Monday night Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met for the first of three presidential debates. Beforehand, those in the know estimated 100 million people would watch. If you were not one of them, you are to be congratulated. To call it awful would be an exercise in hyperbolic understatement. It was utterly soul sucking. If for some reason (like, you hate yourself) you want to read a transcript, it can be found here.
So what happened?
Well, Clinton made the first attack of the evening (about Trump getting a loan from his father), one of a few prepared lines designed to get a rise out of him. But at the beginning of the debate, Trump put on his serious, squinty face and was calm and controlled.
But around the 20-minute mark, the wheels started to come off the whole thing and the two really started to mix it up. If Clinton played the grandmother-card within the first 15 seconds of speaking, Trump played the protectionist card within the first five. He pounded Clinton over her prior support of the TPP. She gave some double-talk response that didn’t really work.
Speaking of things that didn’t work, Clinton tried to deploy a canned line about how Donald’s tax proposals were “Trumped-up trickle-down.” Twice she tried to use that and twice it fell flat. (It’s 2016, nobody knows what trickle-down is anymore. You gotta imagine Clinton came up with that one herself and insisted on using it over the strenuous objections of her staff.)
Trump was on the receiving end of a number of hard questions from moderator Lester Holt. Among other things, Trump was pressed about releasing his tax returns. He gave the same line he’s been using about an ongoing audit, and when Holt pressed him, Trump said he’d release them when Clinton released her 33,000 deleted emails. Clinton pounced, saying that Trump probably hadn’t paid any taxes at all and insisted he had something to hide.
When it was time to talk about race, Clinton went into a routine about how we need to “restore trust between communities and the police,” and some stuff about “the plague of gun violence.” Trump did his law-and-order and inner-cities-are-wastelands shtick. He also repeated his support of stop-and-frisk, and included a bit about prohibiting people on no-fly lists from getting guns.
Holt also asked Trump about birtherism. Trump pointed the finger at Hillary Clinton. She worked past that and claimed that Trump’s birtherism was racist. He hit her back for being “holier than thou” and damned her for deploying birtherism against Obama in the 2008 primary.
When they reached the “Securing America” segment, Clinton was asked about cyber attacks and how to defend against them. She straight up accused Russia of hacking the DNC and promised as President to hit Russia back. Trump defended the Russians, claimed it might have been hacked by some guy who weighs 400 pounds, and then brought up the Sanders stuff from the DNC leaks.
Holt pressed Trump on claiming he opposed the Iraq War ahead of time, which Trump tried to explain away (appealing to Sean Hannity as an authority). Trump and Holt got into it and Clinton just sat back and watched, wearing her biggest, creepiest smile.
Okay, so who won? The general consensus is that Trump won the first third or so, Clinton won the second third, and the last part belonged to nobody. But, as always, who wins will depend on what happens in the next few days. And even if the consensus ends up as a Trump or a Clinton victory, well, Mitt Romney handily won the first debate last time around, and look where he is now.
This is a preview from Tuesday morning’s The Daily Shot newsletter. Subscribe here free of charge.
Published in General
Cross posted from Max’s post
Trump had prepared, but had no attack plan. He had opportunities to nail her and it was diffuse and not effective. He threw a lot of punches but they were not hitting the mark,
Hillary was on the attack all night with help from the moderator, who was clearly afraid of the Hamptons party invites.
She was scripted but vulnerable but Trump never got a killshot because he had no attack plan.
I am not sure if the incredible amount of time he spent on defense of the attacks (Taxes, Iraq flip flop, bad business practice, women) was intentional to diffuse those issues for the next debate (smart) or just plain dumb (not smart)
She did not cough, but was not likeable.
He did not cough but was not much more likeable.
Advantage? Neither. No votes moved.
Debate 2 will be interesting once Trump can view the video of this one.
Either his team decided this would be practice with laying out some markers and are saving the killshot for the last one or they will decide that is the approach they are on after not planning this one very well.
Her Team is happy the meds kept her upright.
Yep, my take as well.
So it wasn’t just me who thought she’d been dipping into the “pneumonia medicine?”
Proud to have stayed away. Watching Cincinnati put a 15-2 hurting on St. Louis was way more entertaining.
Well I for one thought she seemed too relaxed as well.
We need more “debate wrap up” posts. There’s only four at the moment…maybe five. We can do better. Yes, we can.
I think Trump should have played this card during the 2nd debate – he should have prepped and it showed.
Beta blockers can do the same thing, that is, relax a person, and they aren’t narcotics. (I know that only because I suffer from stage fright, and my doctor suggested it when I had to give a little speech one time. :) )
You’re all burying the lede here: Trump wore a blue tie, Hillary wore a red pant-suit.
Huzzah!
Can we finally end the long national nightmare and return to a palette of sanity? True blue is the color of conservatism, and red is the color of the Soviet Union, Communist China, and red diaper babies.
I was at symphony rehearsal. On October 15 we’re playing Copland’s “Billy the Kid” as well as Gershwin, Bernstein and an Ellington medley. ‘Merica!
NO DOUBT!! When did it switch???
Well, I hate myself, but not that much…
What instrument do you play?
Sounds like a magnificent program.
We’re a political site. We’re all here because we like politics. It’s ok to like politics.
Good for you!!! You had a richer and more fulfilling evening. And it was George Gershwin’s birthday today!
Not so good for low blood pressure though. ;-)
I have low blood pressure. That would not have good for me. :)
It is, Doctor, I swear it is!!! … Where are these men taking me?!
I’m just here for the doughnuts, I was told there would be doughnuts. BTW, where are they?
Exactly. Which is why I hated the debate.
I like politics. Not watching two geriatric patients who have no right calling themselves politicians struggle to form complete sentences while remembering to blink at least twice a minute.
Deep down, I harbored a secret hope that his sniffling was a case of pneumonia he had gotten from her.
And which had become multidrug-resistant before jumping from her to him.
Ya see, even there, Trump missed a yuge opportunity. “Sorry, about the sniffles, but my doctor thinks I might have pneumonia. Not to worry, though. It’s not like it’s contagious or anything.”
and when he took a sip of water from a glass during the debate:
“Excuse me, for a second. My doctor wants to make sure I stay hydrated.”
That’s good.
All my lefty friends are pissed off about it, so I guess Trump won.
Agreed. The current “us-red / them-blue” scheme supposedly firmed via Tim Russert and others in the press during 2000. Never liked it. It’s time conservatism takes “blue” back. International leftists have proudly used “red” in all their cruelties for decades, the American left should be made to wear that same cloth. Ricochet could lead this charge.
That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I don’t follow politics and don’t like it. I’m here to remind everyone that what they see from the inside of the beast looks different from the outside.
Also, push-ups.
As I recall we once had blue but then the press decided blue was advantageous ( red too close to home for the Dems, I suppose?) So the media announced hence forth then would ‘alternate’ , surprise surprise , they are the American media, they lied, they alternated once and left us holding the red bag forever.
But Red is the color of passion and love. We should not let the communists have it! It is the color of the blood of martyrs and saints. No the only color the communists deserve is black to go with the color of their souls.
I would frankly have taken a more comedic hope, of one of the light fixtures falling on them half way through the debate.
Ms. Rodham must have asked her handlers for some dextromethorphan and said, “Figure out the dose that would kill me – then back it off a bit.”*
*Yes, that’s an old Jerry Seinfeld punchline.