Unlike the first debate, I actually watched every minute of last night’s, although with some trepidation given the utterly tawdry turn this pathetic election has taken. It was, of course, awkward from moment one.
I was bracing myself for something really awful, like Trump pointing at Bill and screaming “Rapist!”, but it never got that bad (in spite of the four women-victims in the audience).
What struck me the most was the reaction to the last question. An audience member asked the candidates to say something positive about one another, and you could hear (and almost feel) the sigh of relief in the room. The nation is so godawful sick of the mud-slinging, the question was like a window being thrown open in a fetid room.
I thought her answer (praising his children) was brilliant, inasmuch as it was positive and warm but didn’t really praise him directly. As she was talking, I asked myself, were I in his shoes, what answer I would offer. It would be dumb to say anything nasty or negative, particularly in light of her response, so I thought to myself, “I’d describe her as a tenacious fighter who doesn’t quit.” And, lo and behold, that’s precisely what he said. So they both did well (and, interestingly, he shook her hand after that, since the pressure in the room had fallen so much).
I am reminded of the “Miracle on the Hudson” in February of 2009. The nation went crazy for Sully’s landing of the plane on the Hudson River because after the terrorist attacks, the anthrax, and all the other panic and anxiety that gripped the nation for months, it felt so good to actually feel good about something. We had a hero for a change, and it felt like such a relief to celebrate. Had the identical event happened, say, in February of 2014, it would have been an interesting anecdote, quickly forgotten (and they never would have bothered making a movie about it!)
I stand by my contention that Clinton is going to win, and in spite of last night’s better performance by Trump, the market seems comfortable with Status Quo continuing to reign. It’s kind of a shame, at least for us beleaguered equity bears. The ES remains utterly in a quagmire, thanks to – as molecool so eloquently put it – the information vacuum.
