By Florida Bill Hey Trump fans, don't worry; it isn't over 'til its over. Some pollsters are announcing that Hillary Clinton was the clear-cut winner in the first round of debates, though Trump, of course, is full of bluster about winning a bunch of other polls. But I do not believe that Donald Trump lost. He simply was unable to land a haymaker. He was poised and ready to drop the hammer, but Mrs.Clintron sparred and danced about and managed to push those buttons that antagonize Trump so much, thereby managing to neutralize him.
Donald Trump was breathing heavily, but landed only some minor jabs on the candidate who wants to make history by becoming America's first woman president. She even got an assist from the screaming former DNC chairman and six term Vermont governor, Howard Dean, who attributed Trump's sniffing and snorting to his apparent use of some drug like cocaine.
In the early part of the 90-minute debate, they argued about who would create the most jobs and Trump repeated his charge that Hillary and President Obama were the worst ever and that Hillary did things which were "just not nice," a rather lame put-down. Trump kept saying that Hillary has been around government and public service for 30 years or more and has done nothing, but now claims she will do all of these great thing to create jobs. "Why now--why didn't she and Obama do something for Americans when they controlled both houses of Congress," he asked. Score one here for "The Donald."
However, Clinton came back with charges of her own: Trump's refusal to release his tax returns, and his many years of denigrating president Obama as a Kenya-born native masquerading as a natural-born American. No knock-out punches, of course, but a couple of right crosses from smug Hillary which slowed down her blustering Republican opponent and seemed to knock him off balance. In the exchange, Trump offered to release his returns (contrary to his lawyer's advice, he emphasized) if Secretary Clinton would provide the 33,000 emails which she has deleted, and which Trump believes she has stuffed away someplace in her own archives. While the sudden applause of the crowd at that sally--forbidden under the rules of the debate--may have given him a psychological boost, it didn't really put him on top for long.
"Just what is he hiding in those tax returns," wondered Clinton. Perhaps he is concerned that the tax return will demonstrate his lack of charitable donations or that he has less income than he has bragged about; and that he has paid zero tax dollars. Trump then raised the question of the contents of her missing emails, but the criticism didn't seem to hit home. Hillary returned to her corner after that exchange, winner of the round.
In another spat, Trump charged that "Secretary Clinton lacks the stamina to serve as President," adding that the job is just too big for her. The charge did not seem to rattle Hillary, who was dressed in an expensive bright red pantsuit which screamed "power" to her followers. She pointed out that as Secretary of State she traveled to more than 100 countries and handled 11 hours of questions by a congressional committee without any problems. With that, she seemed to close the door on the "stamina" accusation, although Trump surprisingly refrained from venturing into her physical condition and her recent collapse in public and the need for her to produce her medical records.
Lester Holt, of NBC Nightly News and a former Chicago anchor, was the lone moderator and I thought he did okay, considering that everyone was looking over his shoulder and waiting for a sign of favoritism or a failure to check a fact. He let Trump interrupt too much and talk past his two minute limit, complained some critics. Others say he interrupted Trump 41 times, but cut into Hillary only six times. Those disenchanted with Trump are applauding him for letting the world see that the more Trump rambled on, the less he apparently had to say. But from the Trump crowd, how come Holt asked Hillary nothing about her "deplorable" comment or about specific lies which she has told, or about her recent collapse. Did Holt simply forget to ask Clinton about the Clinton Foundation which allegedly makes use of "pay for play" rules
The attacks against Holt on social media the next day were too politicized in my opinion. Prior to the debate, Trump had accused the 57- year-old Holt of being a Democrat, only to learn later that Holt was a registered Republican and had been so for some time. But Holt was cautious in his moderating, knowing that he was being watched and judged. Some weeks ago, Matt Lauer had moderated a commander-in-chief forum with Clinton and Trump being questioned separately. He was castigated as incompetent and biased and for making all sorts of mistakes and for mishandling the entire event. Frankly, I thought that Lauer did an okay job, and that the post game quarterbacking was out of line, and way over the top.
The debate was the first of three which will precede the election on Nov. 8 to choose the 45th President and the successor to President Barack Obama. Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News will co-moderate the second debate, which will be a town-hall style event at Washington University in St. Louis, Oct. 9. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate the third and final presidential debate at University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Oct. 19.
Each candidate was allowed to select attendees to sit in the front row of the auditorium and Hillary picked the big-mouthed multi-millionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. He has been a noisy critic of Trump, labeling him a blustering airhead, unfit to be president. Instead of demonstrating a presidential demeanor and ignoring the fact that Cuban would be in attendance, Trump engaged Gennifer Flowers, allegedly a former mistress of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to occupy a seat in the first row on the Trump side. Trump commissioned her to stare at Hillary and embarrass her. (You have to wonder how much he had to draw out of his campaign chest to finance that silly ploy.) They were both there, but nothing notable happened; only the titillating publicity that they would be in attendance.
Trump tried for some zingers, but they just fell flat. He kept accusing Clinton of creating the vacuum in Iraq which allowed the radical ISIS to form and subsequently expand and commit carnage throughout the world. Hillary let it roll off her back and needled Trump about endorsing the invasion of Iraq. The Iraq charge is being made repeatedly by Clinton forces and it seems to especially annoy Trump. He kept interrupting Clinton saying "not true," but it appeared Clinton touched just the right button. The debate never got close to the immigration controversies and it seems that the conversation concerning the undocumented citizens and the admission of refugees into this country are being reserved for future debates. It is the immigration controversies, and the promised wall along the southern border and the deportation of illegal aliens which have given Trump the attention and popularity that he has.
Millions of Americans watched the debate, more viewers than for any past debate, or maybe even any other high profile event on television. Watch for some real fireworks at the next debate, on Oct. 9.
xxx
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