The Debate: He Does It

Wow! The Donald won and he won big.

I gave the last debate to Hillary on points, but this one had The Donald mopping the floor, the seats, the walls, and the ceiling with The Hillary. He had what should become one of the most memorable lines in any presidential debate when he said Hillary was trying to blame Abe Lincoln for her lies.

OK, let's review.

First of all, as always, I watched this debate with my two dogs. At the end of the debate, I immediately switched off the TV, and took them for a walk. I got home, made myself a vegetarian beef steak (comes from cattle that do not eat meat), had a can of V-8 juice, and sat down at the keyboard. I do not want any pundits or other outside influences affecting my evaluation and recollection of the debate.

The debate started with a pre-game event that clearly shook and shocked the Clinton campaign.  Trump held a little presser with several of the victims of Bill Clinton's sexual assaults, as well as the woman who was raped and Hillary got her assailant off. He then doubled down: he had Mayor Giuliani lead the women into the forum where they got front-row seats. Just after they sat down, the families of the candidates trooped in: the look on Bill Clinton's face was worth a million bucks. He looked ashen, and not all his jovial back-slapping country-boy self. He looked to the floor and tensely made his way to his seat with only a precursory greeting to Melania Trump. The two candidates then walked onto the stage and the tension was palpable. No handshake, no air kisses, no wishing of luck, none of the usual hypocrisy we require of political combatants.

Hillary's face was a frozen mask

I think, and correct me if I am wrong, that Trump, for once, got under her skin. She knew that any time spent on the Trump tape would result in a retelling of the Clinton's sordid history of sex and scandal. And so it came to pass. I think Trump handled the tape question masterfully, pivoting not only to other issues more important, but then hitting Clinton between the eyes with her own behavior towards the women whom Bill had assaulted, and bringing up her own tape in which she is laughing after getting the rapist of the 12-year-old off. She did not want to talk about the tape anymore.

Brilliant. Give the man some credit.

The moderators were a joke, and it was hard to take seriously that the Muslim woman who asked a question was an "undecided" voter. Right. No matter. Trump handled them all. He dealt well with the Islamophobia question, called the moderators on their obvious bias throughout the evening, and tore into Clinton on Syria, Libya, her emails, and her lack of accomplishment as a Senator. Hilary completely fumbled the question about the leaked speech she gave to Goldman-Sachs in which she talked about the need to have a "public position and a private position." She gave a convoluted answer which not only confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document, but tried to claim that she was doing as Lincoln had in trying to eliminate slavery (?) Uh, OK. The Donald seized on this and chastised Clinton for trying to blame Lincoln for her dishonesty: "Abe Lincoln did not lie, but you do."

There was lots more, but let me stop here, and shift gears a bit. Yes, Trump won, and won clearly. I think, however, that the Clinton campaign is not counting on the debates, on the substance of the issues, or on policy prescriptions; they are counting on more leaked scandal tapes about Trump including a rumored one in which he uses the n-word. Can he continue to deflect those tapes? We'll see.

I don't think this debate won Trump the presidency but it sure kept him alive, and Hillary did not look good. OK, off to listen to the pundits and see if they're copying me.