No One Asked Me But… (October 5, 2016)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but... After much debate, with myself, I decided to watch the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
As far as information received, it was a waste of time. The debates did little to change my mind. I still believe that neither candidate is suited to be president of the United States.

As far as debate went, it was obvious that Hillary was an accomplished debater and Donald Trump was out of his element. I have served as a debate judge and I would have to give the win to Hillary. She had obviously done her homework and had pat and controlled answers to all questions. Hillary, in her lifetime, has engaged in major debates over 100 times not even including her debates with Bill over his extra-marital affairs. Hillary is a lawyer and career politician and both of these avocations require the ability to debate.

Trump seemed unable to respond to Hillary’s attacks and he never countered in any meaningful manner. Donald has been a business executive all his life and business executives don’t generally engage in debates. They listen to advice and then give orders, but seldom do they debate an issue. This is one reason Generals don’t make very good presidents because they give orders and orders are carried out. A man in Trump’s position has the same experience.

As I watched the debate, I thought it appeared to be a contest between the captain of the debate team and the captain of the football team. The captain of the football team (Donald Trump) was completely out of this element.

An issue has been made over the fact that the Moderator Lester Holt interrupted Donald Trump over forty times and Hillary only seven times. That was not so much that Holt is a Hillary supporter, which if you watch his newscast is obvious, but rather it was because Trump does not understand the rules of debate. It would be like playing a football game with a team that doesn’t know the rules. Flags would fly against them because, without intending to, the inexperienced team would violate the rules.

While I believe Holt did a good job of moderating, I also believe it is time for the moderators of these debates to refrain from comment. If a false statement is made, it is the job of the other debater to deal with.

When Holt asked directly about Trump’s remarks about women Hillary went into a litany of words Trump used to describe Rosy O’Donnell, the comedian who made derogatory remarks about Trump. Holt did not jump in and remind Hillary that she used the words bimbo, liars, and worse to describe the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual conduct out of the norm.

When talking about national security, Holt failed to bring up the issue of Hillary lying about Benghazi. Clinton’s refusal to deal with radical Islamic terrorism was never mentioned by Holt.
Under the segment of cyber security, Holt did not question Hillary on the possibility of America’s enemies receiving classified information due to hacking of unsecured e-mails. Or, heaven forbid that he might ask about the pay for play accusations against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in relation to donations to the Clinton foundation.

Let me reiterate that I don’t believe the moderator should interject in the debate; however, if the moderator chooses to confront one candidate in a perceived weakness, he should do so with the perceived weaknesses of both.

Donald Trump exposed his weakness in debate repeatedly. He missed many opportunities to counter Hillary’s accusations. I spent much of my time anticipating an answer to many of the statements made by Hillary and watched with amazement as each opportunity was missed.

In the foreign policy section, when Clinton praised the Iranian deal, Trump failed to counter with all the violations that have already occurred. He did not mention the fact that within the next ten years Iran will have the bomb. He mentioned but did not follow up on the provocative naval actions of Iran. While he mentioned the ransom that was paid for the release of Americans held by Iran, in violation of the laws of the United States, he failed to emphasize the fact. He did not mention the lies Clinton told about the origin of the Bengahzi attack.

The section on cyber security was a great opportunity missed. This was a part of the debate Trump should have won. How could Clinton defend allowing nations and private hackers, access to the most classified information of the United States? If the Russians, as Hillary contended, hacked the DNC files they surely have all of Hillary’s e-mails. Trump is correct that if you want to see those e-mails the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians, the Israelis and others both enemies and allies can probably make them available. However, he failed to make this point.

The section on the economy was probably the strongest area for Trump but again he failed to back up his statements with facts. He is correct that the unemployment figures are rigged. However, a good debater would present the facts and figures to back up the statement. If you want to win a debate, you can’t just throw out generalities you have to back your statements with numbers.

Trump is correct that the Democrats have, since the 1940’s, controlled the greatest areas of poverty in America. He was also correct in stating that every four years the Democrats go into those areas and promise they will fix the problem, then go to Washington, and fail to do so. Trump needed to hammer this idea home, however, he failed to do so.

All of that being said, Hillary won the debate. However, I am not sure she won the hearts and souls of the American people. She merely reinforced her smug ‘I am smarter than you are, and therefore better than you, and you ought to vote for me’ attitude.
Hillary does not need to convince the people she is smarter, she needs to convince the people she is trustworthy and likeable. This did not occur.

Will Trump become an accomplished debater before the next debate? I doubt it.
Will Hillary become more likeable by the next debate? Not likely.
We will still be left with a choice between Hillary “I have not been indicted” Clinton, and Donald “I am richer than you” Trump. Neither of which makes me comfortable.

Thought of the week… It is said that power corrupts, but actually, it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible.
– David Brin