This upcoming Monday, September 26th, will be the first (of three) presidential debate. I have been looking forward to this day for literally months. It’s not too soon to get the popcorn popping, the soft drinks chilling, and the air horns waiting.
I have written about this astonishing election off and on during the course of the year. Like most of the country, I am not a fan of either candidate. It seems to me most of the interest in either candidate is simply based on despising the other one. My view is this: if Hillary Clinton is elected, it will be for a similar reason for Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He did it by not being George Bush, and she’ll do it by not being Donald Trump.
In spite of that, Donald Trump is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to Hillary Clinton. Can you imagine if her opponent had turned out to be, say, Ted Cruz? We’d all be just wanting to get the voting done, since she’d obviously completely smoke the guy. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton is the best thing that could have ever happened to Trump. With every passing week, there’s yet another screw-up, revelation, scandal, coughing fit, medical issue, and God-know-what else, to say nothing of the fact that events like the NYC dumpster bombing are of aid to the pro-fear candidate (e.g. Trump).
What excites me about the debate is that it’s going to be theater of the first order. Hillary Clinton has done a gazillion one-on-one debates. For Donald Trump, mock practice sessions aside, he’s going to be a rank beginner. Of course, the same could have been said for the GOP debates, and we all know how those went.
The principal debate risk for Trump, I think, is that he comes off as (a) a bully; (b) ignorant of the issues; (c) or both. Clinton has been immersed in politics for many decades, whereas Trump is a real estate developer. I’m sure he could smoke her in knowledge about developing high rises and golf courses, because she has no experience in those. It works in the other direction too.
The risk for her, of course, is that his bullying actually works. Let’s face it, even Hillary’s supporters don’t like her, and the nation would get a certain amount of glee seeing someone who is pretty obviously unburdened by morals or ethics get hammered. I’m sure both candidates are going to be doing mock debates during every spare moment, so it’ll be fascinating – – absolutely riveting – – to see what kind of reaction these two very unpredictable chemicals have when they’re poured into the same flask.
Of course, there are three debates – not just one – so if there’s a clear “loser” next Monday, you can be sure they’ll be coached to death to make sure the second debate goes better for them. The fact is that this first debate could provide far more momentum than a hundred million dollars worth of advertisements could, and Ms. Clinton may well do a repeat of her balloon face once it’s all over.
