Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Sunday, October 9, 2016

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.

25 comments:

  1. After the first question, when it was clear where the "tough" questions would be aimed, I turned it off. The Packers were playing.

    By the way, Dip, where'd that list of links on the right of this blog go? I loved that!

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    1. I don't know what happened to the blog roll. The whole thing has disappeared. I've written Google but no answer

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    2. That's happened to a lot of Blogger blogs. It's assumed that it's some sort of sitewide issue, but God only knows what it is.

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    3. I have been wondering about the blog roll myself…

      I love your blog but I´m afraid I have to confess I use it also as my own personal “web favorite´s” roller deck.

      And I suspect I´m not the only one.

      Dear Mr. Anselm… You should also start charging 200.000 a pop for the access!

      Maybe then in a few years we could see you occupying “The chair” along with perhaps Allen West, Thomas Sowell and Mia Love exploding some liberal´s heads…

      … And of course Mark Steyn as the White House Press Secretary! I´m sure he would give those “journalists” a run for their money!!!

      Yup… Even in socialist fleeced Portugal some of us dare to dream…

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    4. And now I realized I misspelled your name.
      Always the “polite” thing to do when mentioning our host…
      Sorry about that Mr. Amselem!

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  2. Not a perfect performance by Trump, but much. much better (and definitely a big win). Hope enough people were paying attention.

    Give Cooper a couple of points for bringing up Bill's comments on Obamacare, and Hillary's "deplorables" comment. Radditz, on the other hand, was horrible.

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  3. We are in the final battle trope. The hero wasn't winning and then got the wound that should have killed him. All the weak-willed have switched sides revealing themselves. The enemies were sure they had won.

    He's now got his second wind and risen to his feet. We are now entering the heavy blows leading to the beatdown. The enemies will still throw some staggering blows. But the hero won't go down.

    I liked Hillary's claim that ISIS would be out of Iraq by the time she became president. I believe that was a freudian slip.

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    1. Let's hope she was right -- that ISIS does get run out of Iraq, and that she never becomes POTUS. That's what I'd call a win-win.

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    2. She should know, since she and PeacePrize created ISIS as a part of theier #SmartDiplomacy!

      I fear, however that they have unleashed something they no longer control playing on an ideology that is real. It's not "radical" islam, it's "Fundamentalist" islam.

      May They pay for it in the afterlife.

      BC

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  4. "...hard to take seriously that the Muslim woman who asked a question was an "undecided" voter...."

    But; Muslims don't lie, surely?



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  5. I don't think these events sway any significant numbers of people beyond the truly weak vacillators, and maybe not too many of those.

    Trump's damage control was good, and he has turned the recent controversy back onto the Clintons where it belongs; why anyone at the Clinton campaign thought that a debate about sexual ethics and conduct could turn into anything other than a blood bath for them is just beyond my powers of reasoning. It is rank idiocy for the Clintons to go anywhere near the subject. I suspect the controversy will now fade; but the real question is what else will emerge for the media attacks dogs to ramp into the next anti-Trump hysteria.

    IMHO Trump is still in it and still could win.

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  6. I'm not a US citizen or a resident, so I won't be voting, just a very concerned observer like millions of others around the world. Trump is by no means the ideal candidate but he has my support if only to bring to an end the entrenched corruption and criminality that exists in the Clinton camp. That corruption includes Bill's meeting with DOJ boss Lynch and the FBI boss's decision not to lay charges against Hillary.
    The internet is littered with accounts of corruption and murder; some of it must be true.

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    1. If you want to vote, just go see your local community organizer ...

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    2. Sorry George, I should have clarified: I am Australian, living in Australia. Just hoping for the best outcome for your country.

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    3. Stephen, George was being facetious. He was alluding to the widespread allegations and evidence of voter-registration fraud in various jurisdictions (where there has actually been, y'know, a real investigation of the charges.)
      But I, for one, thank you for your comments from afar -- what happens in the U.S. IS important to the rest of the world. These are trying and scary times, and what we've seen during the Obama years has only intensified that: a U.S. withdrawal from the international stage that has created a global power void; vacillation in U.S. foreign affairs policies that has left a world unsure of U.S. support in the case of allies, and of U.S. unwavering opposition in the case of defined enemies; and a weakened U.S. military capability that now cannot meet the demands asked of it.

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    4. George was being sarcastic. It is something of a running joke in the U.S concerning the Democrats packing the voter rolls with ineligible voters, illegal aliens, felons, and the dead in order to win elections that they shouldn't. A common theme, is when the Democrat candidate does not win on election day, keep recounting the ballots until they do. Often when it appears that even the recounts won't do it, mysterious missing boxes of ballots seem to turn up that always tips the balance.

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    5. I see you followed the Gregoire/Rossi gubenatorial election in Washington too!

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  7. I'm almost at a loss for words! DT, did exactly what I asked him to do in the last 2 survey's he sent me! ;) In fact, I know it was my debate/fight plan, because he sent me an invite to the debate saying so, moreover, he executed the plan, and her, masterfully!
    Unfortunately tho, I couldn't accept his invitation, as I've been digging out from under "Matthew's October Surprise, glad I didn't 'ride this one out'... tomorrow, must call my favorite brother, aka the contractor! If I'm lucky, by the time The Donald is in the White House, I'll be back in my bungalow close by the Sea~~~`
    On Watch~~~
    Dive Dive~~~

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  8. Trump bringing the victims of Bill reminds me of the scene in the Godfather where Michael Corleone has brother of the the guy who is going to testify against him in the courtroom.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FeMvQR-0VA

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  9. BTW, a propos of an earlier post on the issue of "the tape," Heather Mac Donald has a devastating post over at City Journal:
    http://www.city-journal.org/html/trumped-outrage-14777.html

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  10. Don't forget Hillary's bald faced lie about the "red line" in Syria.

    Primo example of her lying when convenient. Trump needs to bring it up in the next debate.

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  11. Lots and lots of great moments! This is one of my favorites:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGiZT-MnI4

    Loved the haunted look on Bill Clinton's face when he realized his past had caught up with him, too. He may have been wondering if he'd be going to jail along with Hillary; that would be fitting, in both cases!

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