The sky didn't fall like I feared it would. Hillary did about as well as I could possibly hope. She came across well, and succeeded grandly in throwing Donald off his "try to look like a sane person for 90 minutes" game. Plus, Donald obviously had the sniffles. I understand that's a classic symptom of the black plague. My biggest disappointment in the entire debate was that we didn't get a live TV booger incident. That would've been SOOOO epic. Now I'm anxiously waiting to see whether any of that matters. If it doesn't, then RIP America. Sorry General Washington, the experiment didn't work.
I was dearly hoping for an epic meltdown "he just disqualified himself" moment. Instead we got a series of lower-level versions of it. So initially I was disappointed. The coverage this morning by all but the most right-wing sites (Drudge, et al) has her winning decisively, though. And as they played back moments and showed them again, it's clear why. After the first 20 minutes or so, which I thought were a draw (and therefore possibly a "low-bar-clearing win" for him), she baited him and he took the bait. He was obviously told not to by his handlers, but he did anyway, thus demonstrating his lack of self-control. She was obviously going to best him on substance. But there was a fear that it might not matter if he bested her on demeanor/confidence/body language and all those visual cues. Instead, the opposite happened. Look at virtually any moment of the two of them side by side (especially after the first 20 minutes) and you'll see it. She rattled him. He couldn't rattle her. She was unflappable. He was flapping all over the place. It wasn't enough of a slam dunk for her to gain more than a couple of points in the polls in the short term, probably. But I'll take it.
Speaking of all that sniffling... He was doing it so much, and more at the beginning of the debate, that the snark in me thought "Damn, Donny, coking up in the men's room before the big debate?" The rational me dismissed the snark me - I've heard he doesn't even drink, so it seemed unlikely. I figured it was allergies or something. Predictably, both Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert in their lives shows after the debate made jokes about coke. But I thought it was an obvious joke that almost wrote itself, so didn't give it any more thought. Then this morning I found out Howard Dean actually tweeted “Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?” I'm not on Twitter, but apparently this question was all over it, and not just from Dean. Now, most of that is probably just amateur snark-meisters being snarky. And I was actually a little disappointed that someone like Dean would put out an allegation like that with nothing to back it up. Then I spoke this morning to a friend of mine who comes from some money and was part of that whole NYC glitterati scene in the 80's that Trump was also certainly part of. He's met Trump casually a couple of times but doesn't really know him. He opined that "everybody" in that scene at the time did coke. "Everybody" seemed too easy to me, and again, no proof. "But Trump doesn't even drink, I think," I said. His answer took my aback a bit. "Yeah. But to a control freak that makes sense. Alcohol makes you lose control. Coke hypes you up, lets you go all night, and makes you feel more in control. Guys like Trump love coke. Just because you don't drink doesn't mean you don't snort." Now, of course, that's proof of nothing. But it did make me go "hm." But only a single "hm." What really made me go "hmmmmmm," though, came about 5 minutes ago. Trump is denying he sniffled at all. (??!!) “No, no sniffles. No, You know, the mic was very bad, but maybe it was good enough to hear breathing, but there was no sniffles.” "“I had a problem with a microphone that didn’t work,” he told the Fox friends. “My microphone was terrible. I wonder, was it set up that way on purpose? My microphone, in the room they couldn’t hear me, you know, it was going on and off. Which isn’t exactly great. I wonder if it was set up that way, but it was terrible.” Huh? There was a conspiracy to give him a bad mike? And that's what we heard, and he wasn't actually sniffling at all? I know something about audio. That was not a bad mike. Plus I have, you know, eyes. When we hear the sniffling sounds, we also see the accompanying facial movements. So why deny it?? Why not just say he has allergies - lots of people do in the early Fall. No one could fault him for that. I was dismissing the whole coke theory thing through all the jokes and snark and even my friend's amateur psychoanalysis... But the denial from Trump himself that he was even sniffling at all finally does make me go "hmmmmm. Really? I wonder... COULD it be?" I still think it unlikely. He probably denied he was sniffling because he doesn't like to admit to any weakness whatsoever and loves to plant the idea that things are rigged against him (they gave me a faulty mike! Maybe on purpose!) And it certainly wouldn't be the first time he denied demonstrably fact and knew that his acolytes (and Fox, but I repeat myself) would just swallow it. But that denial. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...
My thoughts exactly. If polls stay the same or Trump actually goes up after this, we don't deserve what the Founders gave us. I just hope that maybe we can form an LP group at Trump Vista Forced Labor Camp.
Watched about 5 minutes realized nothing new was being revealed and went back to Monday Night Football
The first 20 minutes were boring. Got better later. Back to the denying of the sniffling. Lord knows if it's got anything to do with coke. Let's assume it doesn't. It's still disturbing to me, and I think it indicates an actual psychological problem. The inability to admit to any weakness, plus the idea that if he says something is true, that magically makes it true. And his seeming belief that despite what our eyes and ears tell us to be true, that we should just believe him anyway.
If Hillary had coughed, my God, can you imagine? Donald was sniffing and sniffing. I hope people keep asking him about that, let him spend the next two weeks trying to explain how the Mighty Donald, He Who Is Incredibly Fit, caught a common cold. Or why he's a complete coke head. He deserves it. His performance was straight out of SNL. Denying things he's said, on camera, on air, or on his favorite Mean Girls venue: Twitter. And then today, he doubles down on the nasty comments about Miss Universe. He's a very small, cruel person. The 70-year-old 7th grader, emotions running unchecked, always trying to puff himself up to more than he ever will be. He really is not a smart guy. He is so thin-skinned that each and every minor diss has to be met with nuclear force. Which is reason numero uno not to elect this maniac. It was great fun watching his discomfort last night contrasted with Hillary's presidential, restrained, adult demeanor. 90 minutes was too long for him, you could see how antsy he was about 30 minutes in. Impatient, dismissive, and all bluster, no substance. Imagine him at a cabinet meeting, not listening, perhaps tweeting, blowing off expert advice because someone in the room is smarter than he is. Always winging it, trying to bully and buffalo his way through everything, the way he has with his scam businesses and branding.
Here's the thing about narcissists: it almost always masks a deep insecurity. They have to keep puffing themselves up and telling everybody how great and tremendous and huge they are, because deep down they know they're not. They have to keep up a facade that they're never wrong, because they know they often are. Also, they can convince themselves that the reality they'd like to be true actually is true. That includes the idea that they are always the smartest, most handsome, most capable, most amazing person in any room. But not limited to that - it can extend to objective reality (e.g. "I never said that" when he must know it's on record that he did, or all the times he just leaned into the mike last night to say "wrong," or even once "Not," like he was 9 years old.) In a friend or family member, it's annoying as hell. In a President, it's dangerous as hell.
Let's call it out. Last night, Hillary for the win. I find her to be a bit icy, but last night she came across smart, well-prepared and gosh darn it, almost like-able. Trump is such a baby. Better temperament? Are you kidding? Hillary was practically laughing at him. And then today he said: "I have said time and time again that I would only do these debates if I am treated fairly,” he added. “The only way I can be guaranteed of being treated fairly is if Hillary Clinton is not there.” And it's the microphones fault, or Lester Holt's fault, or the sun was in his eyes. He's like a petulant toddler. And his followers just eat it up.
You know what the problem with Trump's mic was? It was on. His whole, childish, pouting thing of "I'm not being treated fairly." And by "fairly" he means that no one is to call him on his BS. You can picture him in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, running to tell Mummy that the others aren't being fair to him. What a sad little man.
Jim, Trump IS a petulant toddler. But to be fair, that quote you have is actually from Andy Borowitz, who does satirical, Onion-like fake news pieces. Trump Threatens to Skip Remaining Debates If Hillary Is There - The New Yorker So although that sounds like an actual Trump quote, it isn't. On the other hand, Giuliani was already out today possibly prepping the waters for Trump to weasel out of future debates. “If I were Donald Trump I wouldn’t participate in another debate unless I was promised that the journalist would act like a journalist and not an incorrect, ignorant fact checker,”(actual quote). Giuliani: I'd skip next debates if I were Trump So if Trump feels he has more to lose in future debates, he may say "everyone" is advising him not to do them. Or they may just be working the refs trying to get less of that pesky fact-checking going forward. I myself don't feel moderators should do too much fact checking - that's kind of up to the debaters themselves. But IMO something just flat-out black-and-white false (like Trump's claim to have opposed the Iraq war in 2002) is fair game, and I thought Lester Holt - a registered Republican, by the way - struck just about the right balance on that front (though he was a little unassertive in taking control of all the Trump interruptions).
I am no expert on the subject; but things I have heard about Napoleon come to mind. I was genially proud of Mrs. Clinton last night. I told my husband, "I don't know how she did it. I would have thrown up my hands, marched off the stage saying, 'How can I be expected to work under these conditions!?!'" I would have loved to have seen Trump make an even bigger fool of himself; but I think he did a pretty good job. I am sure none of his rabid fans were affected but I will hope against hope that some of those who feel they just can't vote for Hillary, for whatever reason, have realized they must do whatever it takes to keep this fool out of the Whitehouse. Along with his running mate.
