When I was a kid, I used to cringe when the geezers would complain about the political debates, calling them “made for TV circuses” or worse. I enjoyed them, simply for the tactics. The moderator would try hard to help the liberal and trip up the non-liberal, if there was one on the debate. If it was just three liberals then it operated as a window into the hive, if you were willing to sit through it and observe. The adults were always puzzled by my interest in these things and they would say I was very mature for my age.
I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now. These days I’m watching solely for the yucks. I want to see Hillary have a seizure and begin speaking in tongues. I imagine her fielding a question about Syria and responding with “Cabbage toaster broccoli banana” and then running around the stage clucking like a chicken. The woman is a horrible shrew and nothing she says means anything, because she is also a pathological liar. The fact that she has made it this far suggests we are in the end times.
Of course, Trump is great TV, even if you don’t like him, and I’m really not a fan of his style. The blustering New Yorker has never been my favorite American type, but he does get off some zingers that you just never hear a politician say these days. His crack about Rick Perry wearing glasses so people would think he is smart is the sort of thing a guy from Queens says. Trump is a man, who has been putting on shows for Americans going back to the 80’s, so he knows how to do it well.
The thing about these shows is they are mostly about reassuring voters that their guy is OK and the other guy is not Cicero or Churchill. Bush supporters were on pins and needles before the 2000 debate. When Gore made a fool of himself, the Bush people relaxed and felt like they had a winner. The Gore people got their turn in the next debate when Lieberman and Cheney had an mature, sensible exchange over important topics. After that debate, both sides were back where they started, sure that their guy was OK.
They say this time will be different, but my hunch is most Trump people will be happy if he avoids throwing a chair at the moderator or calling Hillary a fat cunt. Trump’s reputation for saying outlandish things is wildly overstated. Most of the time, he is simply saying what everyone knows, but no one on TV ever says. In some cases, it is manufactured outrage over something he said. Still, he will be baited by the moderator into talking about touchy subjects and his job tonight is to avoid the traps and play it safe.
Clinton has a tougher task because she is the establishment candidate. The irony here is that she got into politics to be the radical challenging the man and now she is the face of the man. If she tries to sound like anything other than the defender of the faith, she will come off as a phony or a bigger phony than typical. She just has to make sure she does not look like death or have one of those hacking fits where it sounds like she is coughing up a lung. if she topples over or is wheeled out in an iron lung, then it will be curtains.
These things are TV shows and that plays to Trump’s strength. The first debate is like the first impression in that it colors the rest of the contest. Amazingly, millions of people will tune it tonight not having thought much about either candidate. In a sane country, these people would be sterilized, but we let them vote so they are a part of the dynamic. Trump’s TV skills will give him an edge in creating a good first impression. Clinton’s shrill personality is just not made for these things so she is going to have to try and get under Trump’s skin and hope he says something off-putting.
Everyone in the media and in the Cloud Party knows all this stuff. They have been working with the moderator to make sure he understands the the finer points of arkancide. The post-debate talking points are prepared and the reports and analysis are ready to go. The moderator’s job tonight is to hit Trump with a few zingers so they can put his words into their reports and post-debate sound bites. The chattering skulls of the commentariat are practicing their one-liners in front of the mirror as I type this.
My bet is the post debate spin will be based on Clinton’s “presidential performance” and the “gravitas” she displayed versus Trump’s “amateurish and unserious” performance. The words “dangerous” and “reckless” will be tossed around by the talking heads with regards to Trump. That’s the game plan from Team Cankles. They want to run on the message that Trump is too dangerous and unpredictable, so you can be sure the media types have been told to push those points after the show.
By next weekend, Trump will have a jumped in the polls and he will be pushing 50%.
How soon will the Dems be able to run the FIRST transgender candidate for President? 2020, if the Hill loses.
Nice homage to Bob Dylan.
The question many of us over here have is whether or not these debates really make any difference in how people view the potential political candidates. Do people walk away with a genuine sense their candidate is really so brilliant?
I have seen a few of these in the past and to be perfectly honest I don’t see how anyone can take anything of value away from them at all. The questions are so poorly worded that they seem to require only subjective, rather than objective, factual answers. Even then the answers are generally so vague and lack any insight as to how the candidates have considered various problems and solutions they may actually face. All of this is spiced up with little nasty snipes at each other, like two small children insulting each other in a playground. I kept waiting for “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” and wouldn’t have been surprised if either had said it.
I simply don’t see how one could compare this format of debate to a true academic debate – and certainly not to the level of the Oxford Union which I found very interesting during the Brexit debates. Without taking sides, but simply observing presidential debates on the quality of the event itself, I fail to see how this is of any real value to the American people who are about to make one of the most important decisions that will affect their lives over the next four years, and possibly beyond.
I can’t bear listening to either of them, so I read minute by minute reviews of the debate. Trump, unsurprisingly, was not well prepared. Hillary was Hillary. Edge, Hillary, for not appearing brain damaged. The polls, however, were very interesting. Leaving aside CNN (why wouldn’t I?) and most of the snap polls like Drudge which are totally partisan, Trump did far better than the debate would suggest. Trump may well exceed the Brexit undercount come November.
“I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.”
That line made me smile. Shades of James Barrie.
That would be Bob Dylan, “My Back Pages”
I like the new changes to your site. The orangish gold is a bit of a shock.
I hate debates. Lester did the usual hit job one expects from the drive by media. Hillary did some unusual blinking in the first few minutes.
I will still be voting Trump, with joy in my heart.
Have you noticed the odd cadence of Hillary’s speech? She may have been doped up enough to stand for 90 minutes but no normal person bobs their head like that.
I wish Trump was more articulate, but then what is needed now is blunt talk. He’s clear when he describes financial matters. Par Cadell’s sample shows Trump picked up some independents, but no other real changes.
First time hearing Mr T speak and maybe the third for HRC. Mr. T disappointed me with his odd facial expressions and not-very-poised speaking style. HRC disappointed me by remaining upright during the 20 minutes or so I watched before went up to bed trying to remember if JFK-RMN’s debate (seen at age 14) was–as I remembered–truly so much better.
I much prefer Mr. T’s platform to his person, would much rather have Pat Buchanan in T’s place, but alas Pat is too old and too articulate to attract the lumpen who now need to be heard from if the US is to remain even a shadow of its former self. Mr. T held his own, all things considered, or so it appears to someone who will try and watch the thing in recorded segments of 20 minutes tops, but I believe nearly everyone has made up his or her min by now in any case.
zman, isn’t Hillary always speaking in tongues? I keep hoping she will go all the way to the rolling on the floor part of the Pentacostal experience. No offense intended to any Pentacostals in the audience.
Have never watched a debate in my life. Spent what little time I could have last night comparison shopping cell phones.
This isn’t Nascar, Hillary won’t crash and burn. She’ll be rested and shot to the gills with whatever keeps her upright for two hours, her eyes aligned, and her seizures under control. Regrettably.
Maybe but my bet is on she go splody with her body being under pressure and the temperature rising. She can’t handle that and I don’t think any amount of pharma will prevent it. She is one weak vessel … in many ways.
While Donald does not want to be viewed as being the one who pushed her over the edge, he can simply handle himself properly and show everyone that her handlers are the ones for putting a sick puppy up to this charade.
Trumps best tactic is to simply not play into her taunts and ignore her cheap shots. He needs to keep his cool, his answers short and to the point and not attack Hillary. This will force the moderators and Clinton to self implode. If nothing else, it will show the world that Trump can handle himself like a serious politician should.
Consider Trumps casino connection; the real game is after the election with men like Putin, Jinping, Salman and Khamenei. – and it’s winner take all on a global scale. If Trump flinches in front of Clinton playing “Go fish”, he doesn’t stand a chance when he has to play Poker with the big boys.
True,James.her private Dr Feelgood will have her primed and ready,as she was at the Benghazi testimony.But there’s a caveat,she’s been a heavy drinker all her adult life,with rumored cocaine abuse.All that fun stuff is swell in your 20’s but catches up in later years.Whatever cocktail of meds they’re pumping into her can have their own toxic effects over time…maybe it’s embalming fluid,who knows?
Beautiful. It will just add to the eventual obliteration.
Nailed it,Zman.Hillary’s Human Centipede Media have her covered no matter what she says,and it’s Trump’s fault if she plants her face in the podium.Karl gets a Gold Star for his Chameleon research,it explains those lizard eyeballs she hacked up into a water glass a couple weeks ago.
I. Just. Cannot. Do. It. I’ll watch a bit of recorded TeeVee and then go to bed. Tomorrow I will go straight to Drudge for the report. On October 17th I will take advantage of the early vote here so whatever is said and done tonight doesn’t matter to me anyway.
Please, please, please, let Trump call her a fat ugly cunt and throw a chair at her oversized podium. I’d pay to see that.
I want to see her have an Evan Baxter moment on stage.
I’m with you. In fact I hope Huma Abedine comes up so Trump can call her husband a pervert and a scumbag. That’s the kind of president want.
While it promises to be fun, I shall miss ithe debate live as I will — and this time zone malarkey is to blame — be asleep. While I have not been invited to vote in your forthcoming election, I would opt for Trump as he brings a little sense of fun to it all. Our best bet was Boris Johnson in the UK’s recent prime minister chase but he ruled himself out early. A shame, because a little weirdness in politicians can be guaranteed to lighten our day from time to time. Enjoy, my friends!
The next time someone makes a rude comment about our beloved Chancellor, I have only two words…Hillary Clinton. Say what you will about Angela, but at least she can stand up for 10-minutes at a time without her eyes going in different directions like a small Chameleon . If I wake up and don’t see flames over the western horizon, I will know all is well.
P.S. – I had to look up the word “Chameleon” to make sure I spelled it correctly. The definition is: “A small slow-moving Old World lizard with a prehensile tail, long extensible tongue, protruding eyes that rotate independently to watch an approaching object while simultaneously scanning the rest of its environment. It is also known for its highly developed ability to change color.” I think I may have looked up the definition of Hillary Clinton by mistake.
Good night America.
I’m too sick to stay up for the debate, but if Hillary has a spectacular meltdown and I miss it live, I’ll devastated. This is the only television I’ve wanted to watch in years. I doubt I’m the only person who is tuning in hoping to see a fiery crash.
It is your civic duty to endure whatever hardships to witness the Former USofA jump the shark. The party Aparatchiks, oh I’m sorry my bad, “debate moderators” are going to have to pull a rabbit out of their butts to keep the future anointed corpse of the united states of amerika, (or is a that corps, or corp) looking like it has a pulse for 2 hours. I think it is those eyes, those crazy eyes, I want to see them spin like Andi whats his name on Laugh In used to do, when Trump whispers Alt-Right to her while she is in rebuttal.
Haven’t watched TV in years, but the expected meltdown of the wicked vagina of the west will be Yuuuge! Yuuuge I tell ya.
This is the epitome of the circus part of bread and circus of a dead cat bounce empire, truly spectacular theater of the absurd.