Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Hillary Clinton wins in first head-to-head debate with Trump


Trump offered hate and anger in his responses; Clinton gave thoughtful and measured answers to questions


After watching the Clinton/Trump debate last night, I want to say that Donald Trump’s performance could be summed up in one short video clip from the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison:


The crux of his performance last night is that simple. Listening to Donald Trump makes you dumber.

In all seriousness, my major takeaway from the debate, without going into too many details, was that it was a clear Hillary Clinton win. There can be no doubt about it. She wasn’t perfect, but she answered questions with intelligence. She likely would have won the debate even if Donald Trump wasn’t the nominee.

Perhaps Donald was trying to reach his base. Indeed, Trump said many of the things his supporters wanted him to. But he came off as bullyish, ill-prepared, obnoxious, rude, and unable to respond to simple questions from moderator Lester Holt or from Secretary Clinton herself. And he contradicted well-known facts that are could be found through a simple Google search.

Clinton, on the other hand, appeared to produce thoughtful answers -- as if she had studied the issues. It’s a good thing to be a studious candidate. Americans want a prepared leader, and Hillary Clinton was definitely prepared to answer some difficult questions, providing ample reason to believe that she’ll be ready to serve as president on day one.

Americans also want a leader with sound temperament. They saw that Clinton was the better of the two in that regard as well, and it was especially evident as Trump kept interrupting and rudely shouting over Clinton’s responses.

Yes, people do like it when candidates speak from the gut. But Donald Trump’s gut didn’t just speak last night on the debate stage -- it spewed out the thoughtless tripe that composes the entirety of the Trump platform, which is hate and anger, and very little in actual substance.

Trump offers a cathartic release for voters who are upset with America’s first black president and its potential first woman president. Everyone else was hoping to see a measured response to questions and a plan for how to move the nation forward. They got that from Sec. Clinton. From Donald Trump, they got zilch.

1 comment:

  1. Donald Trump seems to have trouble forming sentences which makes him hard to listen to.

    Is this how he conducts his business dealings? Are meetings with him filled with incoherent rambling? Is this how he intends to represent us to the rest of the world in important meetings with other world leaders?

    We need better than a person who cannot be bothered to do just a little bit of research on the problems that America is facing. We need a person that will take the job of being President of the United States seriously and actually do the work necessary.

    As Donald Trump has clearly demonstrated, he is not the person that we need to be our next President.

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