The merge of news and entertainment has devolved presidential
debates to reality show status with Trump fighting three foes, media, GOP and
Clinton. When Trump took to the stage he had to battle the GOP and their demand
that Trump quit his presidential bid, eight hours of Sunday morning media
attacks and as his opponent Hillary Clinton.
The moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz seemed to think their
main job was to finish off Trump. The
trap was set.
Moderators attack Trump out of the gate.
The moderators decided to attack Donald Trump over the Billy
Bush tape from the start setting a demeaning tone for the debates. After apologizing for his statements, Trump
went into a litany of the reasons he was running; the status quo is
unacceptable and he wants to change that.
He wants to make America great again.
Hillary miss-quotes Alexis de Tocqueville
Hillary said America is great because America is good. Alexis de Tocqueville’s actual quote was “America
is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease
to be great.” One could make the case
that with the US President as judge, jury and executioner through drone
killings and endless wars of aggression, America has ceased to be good,
therefore America has ceased to be great.
Obamacare
Hillary Clinton decided to double down on Obamacare vowing
that if we just throw more government money into subsidies, increase penalties
for not buying horrifically expensive insurance with astronomical deductibles,
and gifting tax payer subsidies to insurance company profits Obamacare can be
fixed. Even Bill Clinton has called
Obamacare the “craziest thing in the world.”
Immigration and Syrian Refugees
Hillary brought up the discredited photo of child with blood
on his head after an alleged Russian and Syrian bombing of the US backed rebels
in Aleppo. Hillary then cited phony
media reports that Trump as a private citizen was for Iraq war. When Trump challenged
Hillary and cited he had the backing of the border control guards he was again
interrupted by Martha Raddatz. Trump stuck to his guns on Syria, Russia and
Iran.
WikiLeaks exposes the
real Clinton
The moderators briefly brought up WikiLeaks expose of
Hillary Clinton. In a speech before Wall
Street banks, she stated her positions as stated for the public were different
than her real positions behind closed doors.
In her response, Clinton blamed Russia and claimed WikiLeaks was working
with Russia to defeat her and elect Trump.
She then tried to deflect from her statements and tried to bring up
Trump’s taxes.
Taxes
The moderators then segued to Trump’s tax returns. Trump said he would get rid of carried
interest deductions for billionaires.
That was interesting since Clinton supporter billionaire Mark Cuban was on
Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday saying he was against getting rid of
carried interest. There must be a reason
why billionaires want carried interest to remain.
Aleppo Syria
Hillary would continue to arm rebels whereas Trump supports
forming an alliance with Russia and Syria to fight ISIS. Raddatz tried to intervene excusing the
failing policy in Syria to remove elected President Assad. Trump was able to make the case that the US
has more to benefit from providing safe zones for Syrians in Syria than having
Syrians flee their country.
The winner is Donald Trump
All in all the debate went well. Trump was, by accounts I’ve seen from post-debate
callers into C-SPAN, the winner of the debate. The following morning callers into C-Span’s
three hour recap of the debate vowed to vote for Trump and against GOP
defectors down ticket. Some of the
on-the-fence Clinton supporters have moved to Trump after hearing what Clinton
says to voters is not what she says behind closed Wall Street donor doors. Particularly incensed are the Bernie Sanders
supporters who have vowed to either vote for Trump or a third party.
The biggest losers, Paul Ryan and the GOP
Unlike the real polls, CNN whose Anderson Cooper was a
moderator and the Wall Street Journal’s “never Trump” poll overwhelmingly
showed a Clinton win. Anyone that would
believe that hasn’t watched C-Span where actual callers revealed a much
different result. The biggest losers,
Paul Ryan and the GOP. On to the third
debate, Trump is on a roll and he’s thrown off the GOP yoke and he’s ready for
bear. Should be fun.
Patricia Baeten
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