America tuned in to see the second presidential debate tonight. According to much of the mainstream media, we were going to see the end of Donald Trump. That video from eleven years ago was just going to sink his campaign. Clearly, the mainstream media was wrong. AGAIN!
My sense of the evening is that it was a clear win for Trump. I know that many readers will not be surprised that I call the debate for Trump. Still, it was an evening that had five basic points that came through pretty clearly:
1. Trump did not collapse when the talk turned to the video and his crass talk with Billy Bush. Trump called it locker room talk and, even after Anderson Cooper pushed the point, said that he had not sexually assaulted women. He even hit back with the difference between what he had said and what Hillary had done in laughing about getting a rapist of a 12 year old off in court and fronting for her husband who had actually done so many bad things. It was not a good thing for Trump to have to discuss this stuff, but he managed to go through it all without suffering much damage.
2. Trump managed to point out many of Hillary Clinton's endless lies. My favorite moment of the night was when Clinton was asked to explain the comment in her speech to Wall Street bankers that she had tried to suppress. Hillary told the bankers that she would have a public and a private position on most issues. In other words, Hillary told the bankers that she would have a real position in private and would just lie to the public about what her actual position was. I read the excerpts from the speech in which Hillary said that; she was quite clear about it. Nevertheless, Hillary actually tried to claim that she was talking about Abraham Lincoln and how he ran the government. It was a total lie. Trump did not let her get away with it. He mocked her for blaming "Honest Abe" as the one who lied to the public. Trump also pointed out Clinton's lies about classified information and many other aspects of her emails. He hit her on a great many other lies too.
3. Trump was quite good on the issue of Supreme Court appointments. He made clear that he would appoint justices who would uphold the Constitution. Hillary made clear in her answer on the subject that she really did not care about the Constitution; she wanted real life experience. In other words, she wants justices who will ignore the Constitution and who will act instead as some sort of super legislature.
4. Hillary failed in some of her attacks on Trump because she went overboard in exaggeration. It was not just the lies from Hillary. She said things like Trump paid no taxes for 20 years. We all know that is not true. Trump admitted that he used his 900 million dollar loss to offset taxable income. That does not translate into 20 years of not paying taxes. Hillary, however, went overboard on that, and on other things as well. It undermined her arguments.
5. Finally, Hillary once again looked bad compared to Trump. She had that phony smile pasted on her face. When Trump scored some really big points, Hillary planted that smirk on her face as if she was laughing at Trump's point. The problem with that, however, is that when America can tell she just got hit hard, it doesn't play well to put the phony smile on your face. Trump walked around a lot during the debate, more than Hillary. His demeanor, however, was more even than in the first debate. He never seemed rattled, while Hillary did on more than one occasion. Indeed, Trump came into the debate under more pressure than anyone should ever have to face. Despite all that pressure, Trump came through and maintained his calm. It was noticeable. And for those who think that Clinton and her campaign did not get rattled, consider this: during the debate, when Trump said that Captain Khan would still be alive had he been president cause he would not have gone into Iraq, Hillary's foreign policy advisor tweet out to Trump "go f__k yourself". That's the hallmark of a group that is so upset that it doesn't know what to say. They were clearly rattled. They expected a cake walk and they got a shellacking.
TRUMP WON.
My sense of the evening is that it was a clear win for Trump. I know that many readers will not be surprised that I call the debate for Trump. Still, it was an evening that had five basic points that came through pretty clearly:
1. Trump did not collapse when the talk turned to the video and his crass talk with Billy Bush. Trump called it locker room talk and, even after Anderson Cooper pushed the point, said that he had not sexually assaulted women. He even hit back with the difference between what he had said and what Hillary had done in laughing about getting a rapist of a 12 year old off in court and fronting for her husband who had actually done so many bad things. It was not a good thing for Trump to have to discuss this stuff, but he managed to go through it all without suffering much damage.
2. Trump managed to point out many of Hillary Clinton's endless lies. My favorite moment of the night was when Clinton was asked to explain the comment in her speech to Wall Street bankers that she had tried to suppress. Hillary told the bankers that she would have a public and a private position on most issues. In other words, Hillary told the bankers that she would have a real position in private and would just lie to the public about what her actual position was. I read the excerpts from the speech in which Hillary said that; she was quite clear about it. Nevertheless, Hillary actually tried to claim that she was talking about Abraham Lincoln and how he ran the government. It was a total lie. Trump did not let her get away with it. He mocked her for blaming "Honest Abe" as the one who lied to the public. Trump also pointed out Clinton's lies about classified information and many other aspects of her emails. He hit her on a great many other lies too.
3. Trump was quite good on the issue of Supreme Court appointments. He made clear that he would appoint justices who would uphold the Constitution. Hillary made clear in her answer on the subject that she really did not care about the Constitution; she wanted real life experience. In other words, she wants justices who will ignore the Constitution and who will act instead as some sort of super legislature.
4. Hillary failed in some of her attacks on Trump because she went overboard in exaggeration. It was not just the lies from Hillary. She said things like Trump paid no taxes for 20 years. We all know that is not true. Trump admitted that he used his 900 million dollar loss to offset taxable income. That does not translate into 20 years of not paying taxes. Hillary, however, went overboard on that, and on other things as well. It undermined her arguments.
5. Finally, Hillary once again looked bad compared to Trump. She had that phony smile pasted on her face. When Trump scored some really big points, Hillary planted that smirk on her face as if she was laughing at Trump's point. The problem with that, however, is that when America can tell she just got hit hard, it doesn't play well to put the phony smile on your face. Trump walked around a lot during the debate, more than Hillary. His demeanor, however, was more even than in the first debate. He never seemed rattled, while Hillary did on more than one occasion. Indeed, Trump came into the debate under more pressure than anyone should ever have to face. Despite all that pressure, Trump came through and maintained his calm. It was noticeable. And for those who think that Clinton and her campaign did not get rattled, consider this: during the debate, when Trump said that Captain Khan would still be alive had he been president cause he would not have gone into Iraq, Hillary's foreign policy advisor tweet out to Trump "go f__k yourself". That's the hallmark of a group that is so upset that it doesn't know what to say. They were clearly rattled. They expected a cake walk and they got a shellacking.
TRUMP WON.
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