For a sickening moment during last night's debate, I thought Donald Trump was going to give Hillary Clinton a hard time, score some badly needed points.
And maybe even win the debate, after losing the two others.
For he started out looking reasonably under control, he wasn't sniffling or snuffling, and he was talking about jobs.
But sadly for him that only lasted about 30 minutes, before he hit the canvas with a sickening thud.
After refusing to say whether he'll accept the election result.
Which not only undermines the foundations of American democracy, but could also cause some of his many violent supporters to take up arms when Trump loses...
As he now almost certainly will, for no democracy can live with that kind of threat hanging over its head.
And it must surely be the final warning that he is unfit to be president.
The presidential debate was another exercise in narcissism, bombast and mendacity by Mr. Trump. One could only hope that this might be the last grand display of his gross unfitness to be president.
Mr. Trump’s meltdown in the closing weeks could be dismissed as a sore loser’s bizarre attempt at rationalizing his likely defeat. But his trashing of the democratic process, in service of his own ego, risks lasting damage to the country, and politicians of both parties should recoil from him and his cynical example.
But that wasn't the only reason Trump lost the debate.
He sputtered when Mrs. Clinton charged that he would be “a puppet” of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia if elected. He lashed out repeatedly, saying that “she’s been proven to be a liar on so many different ways” and that “she’s guilty of a very, very serious crime” over her State Department email practices. And by the end of the debate, when Mrs. Clinton needled him over Social Security, Mr. Trump snapped and said, “Such a nasty woman.”
When he called Clinton a "nasty woman" he only revealed his own nastiness, and his raging misogyny.
When he claimed that "nobody has more respect for women than I do" the audience gasped, and then laughed loudly.
When he challenged Clinton's experience, by calling it "bad experience" she put him in his place.
"I'm happy to compare my 30 years of experience with your 30 years." —Hillary to Trump #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/TwOpwfFUZ5— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 20, 2016
And what's now abundantly clear is that when Trump underestimated Hillary Clinton, no doubt because she's a woman, he made a fatal mistake.
The third and final presidential debate has ended, and it can now be said: Hillary Clinton crushed Donald Trump in the most effective series of debate performances in modern political history.
Each debate has followed the same pattern. Trump begins calm, but as Clinton needles him, he falls apart, gets angrier, launches bizarre personal attacks, offers rambling justifications for his own behavior, and loses the thread of whatever question was actually asked of him.
Because however flawed she may be, she's a formidable political operative, smart, tough, and calculating. He couldn't bully her, and she played him like a fiddle.
She triggered Trump’s epic meltdown purposely, and kept Trump off balance over multiple weeks that probably represented his last chance to turn the election around. She was ready for every question, prepared for every attack, and managed to goad Trump into making mistakes that became the main story the day after every single debate.
And at this stage in the campaign, almost certainly ended any chance he had of winning the election...
And the only real question in my mind is whether Clinton's victory will be big enough to make it clear the election was not rigged, and head off a possible armed rebellion.
Or an explosion of right-wing terrorism, or even a new American civil war...
Which would almost certainly spill across the border, and threaten us as well.
And yes, Bernie Sanders is right...
The stakes couldn't be higher.
And every vote counts...
In my opinion, it doesn't matter now, Simon, Trump has let the "fixed election" genie out of the bottle, and his tea bagging deplorables will run with this. Just think of the Canadian Ezra Levant kool aid drinkers in Canada, who still prop Harper up as a some sort of hero, and then multiply that by ten, with assault rifles. I, myself, was threatened with gun violence during our election on a Facebbok thread a year ago, in Canada's!. When you have a country where 25% of the population still doesn't believe in Evolution, then you can tell these ignorant red necks that they've been jobbed, they will believe it. I was actually feeling relief, because 2 months ago, the polls claimed that Clinton and Trump were neck and neck, and in the last few weeks the media and most of the American public finally starting calling this charlatan out, but now he has an army of morons ready to disintegrate democracy as we know it, because their nominated choice for president, who isn't even fit to be left to his own discretion in a public setting, shit the bed, and is now leaving the rest of the country to clean up his mess. He's like a little boy in a sand box threatening to take his Tonka toys home if he doesn't get his own way and you can thank the ultra-right Conservative movement for this sad state of affairs. These clowns spent 8 years blocking any progress Obama tried to implement, and don't kid yourself, if Harpers left over dregs could do the same, they would. These people have no qualms about shutting down government, even when they yield the power will not practice any form of bi-partisan politics. Clinton better hope she wins the senate or they're in for another 4 years of stonewalling and obstruction with nothing getting done.
ReplyDeletehi GreazedLitenen...well I hope you're wrong. Trump is indeed playing a dangerous game, and he is inflaming his flying monkeys. But what he is also doing is motivating progressives to get out the vote. For the bigger Clinton's margin of victory, he harder it will be to claim that the election was fixed. And if Trump's army of deplorables insist on acting like terrorists, then they should be treated like terrorists, and caged like they deserve...
DeleteTrump reminded of a large mouth bass and when Hillary dangled the right bait in front of him, he couldn't help but let his big mouth take the bait, hook, line and sinker.
ReplyDeleteJD
What a great night it was. The anniversary of Justin toppling the Evil Dictator and the slaying of Trump. I watched it on Stephen Colbert''s Facebook page, he had a string quartet playing along with the answers. It was Tremendous lol Happy Anniversary! ❤️Pamela.
ReplyDeletehi Pamela...yes we can't ask for more can we? The anniversary of the day we brought down our tyrant, and the sight of that bloated demagogue heading in the same direction. Happy days indeed...
Delete
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/radio/thisisthat/ads-on-money-trudeau-impersonator-canada-fails-summer-american-refugees-1.3751774/thousands-of-americans-illegally-flee-to-canada-over-fears-of-election-results-satire-1.3751963
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/19/the-final-trump-clinton-debate-transcript-annotated/
ReplyDelete[snip]
TRUMP: Chris, she should never have been allowed to run for the presidency based on what she did with e-mails and so many other things.
WALLACE: But, sir, there is a tradition in this country -- in fact, one of the prides of this country -- is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner. Not saying that you're necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but that the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you're not prepared now to commit to that principle?
TRUMP: What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time. I'll keep you in suspense. OK?
CLINTON: Well, Chris, let me respond to that, because that's horrifying. You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is, is rigged against him.
The FBI conducted a year-long investigation into my e-mails. They concluded there was no case; he said the FBI was rigged. He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary. He said the Republican primary was rigged against him. Then Trump University gets sued for fraud and racketeering; he claims the court system and the federal judge is rigged against him. There was even a time when he didn't get an Emmy for his TV program three years in a row and he started tweeting that the Emmys were rigged against him.
TRUMP: Should have gotten it.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: This is -- this is a mindset. This is how Donald thinks. And it's funny, but it's also really troubling.
WALLACE: OK.
CLINTON: So that is not the way our democracy works. We've been around for 240 years. We've had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what must be expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election. You know, President Obama said the other day when you're whining before the game is even finished...
(APPLAUSE)
WALLACE: Hold on. Hold on, folks. Hold on, folks.
CLINTON: ... it just shows you're not up to doing the job. And let's -- you know, let's be clear about what he is saying and what that means. He is denigrating -- he's talking down our democracy. And I, for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position.
[snip]