ABOUT LAST NIGHT
Going to the candidate’s debate,
Laugh about it, shout about it…..
Any way you lose…..
Simon & Garfunkel
The long awaited debate was last night between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In reality it was a hybrid. Trump gave his campaign speech in various forms. Clinton articulated her agenda and didn’t take any Trump bait.
In a way it was the battle of the vocabularies. Trump used words like “disaster”, “weak”, “terrible”, “a mess” all the old stand bys that say both everything and nothing. Clinton gave answers that had a beginning, a middle and an end.
Trump went off the rails at 9:16PM and never really got back on track. He interrupted Clinton about 25 times and she held her ground. At the end of the night, the spinners were out in full force. Even Donald Trump!!!!
The instant polls of debate watchers showed that 55% of those polled think Trump can’t handle the Presidency. Clinton won the debate 62% to his 27%. On the understanding of the issues, Clinton got 68% while Trump got 27%.
All in all a good night for Clinton. But polls on debates don’t win a Presidency. Trump is still even in some battle ground states and both are going to have a very close battle. On WBRE TV last night I said that 85% of the Republican voters for Trump will go for him and 85% of the Democrats will vote for Clinton. A narrow lane exists for undecided and independent voters and they are all in the battle ground states.
Despite some of Trump’s outlandish claims, like “Hillary Clinton has been supporting ISIS her entire adult life” (Hillary graduated college in 1969 and ISIS was a force then??) Trump supporters will back him. Earlier in the evening WBRE TV’s Kelly Choate did a story about a debate watch party involving King’s College students. More than a quarter said they’d support Trump.
Bottom line, on polling Clinton won. But it was a draw. Clinton won on substance, Trump on theater.
The voters will have to decide if they want a show or a government.