I was in fact surprised DT did as bad as he did. Rationally, I thought he spent days preparing to actually wow us with something pretty much nobody expected: an informed and professional performance. I should have known that rationality is not his forte. With expectations for him as low as they were because, frankly, he has no business standing on that podium, he should have easily impressed. Then I heard his advisers releasing information half an hour before the debate that the D hadn't even conducted a mock debate. He had spent the afternoon with his children and wife in Trump Tower. I have an interview soon and I mock-debated the crap out of that. Why? Because I want the job! You would think running for president is something Donald Trump would consider preparing for. Minutes in it had become clear Trump should have done a test round...
The media, although correct in doing so, is evidently trying a new approach reporting on Trump. Wait, hear me out because this will definitely not be a "Hillary bought them" argument. It's like Trump said that the media was biased so often they actually stop calling out how ill-suited he is in fear of giving him some gunpowder (which he totally would do). The echo beforehand was largely that Hillary has had so much experience and Trump has had none that it was obvious she had a clear advantage. If that isn't a reason to vote for her in itself I don't know what is. Bad enough we have an amateur debater at the podium, never mind in the race. Right after the assessment continued, with even liberal outlets trying to find faults in Hillary's performance. I love that she was actually criticized, called out on the things she did do wrong and the discrepancies in her past decisions. Unfortunately, one cannot expect the same from the Trump camp.
In fact, he celebrated himself as the winner pretty much right after the debate. Retweeting assessments that saw him beating Hillary up to 80-20 (I know, in what world?) and claiming his mic was broken. On purpose, of course! One of his biggest
Which brings me to my favorite theme: lying! How Hillary actually became the lying candidate is unfathomable to me. 30 years of political life means she definitely lied. I am aware she's not a truth-speaking robot. But is it really happening that one of the reasons she is losing votes is because of dishonesty while her opponent takes the stage in front of 100 million domestic viewers and fails a fact-checking contest MISERABLY? Facts are obviously a currency Trump voters are not really interested in trading with so it doesn't really matter that a TREMENDOUS amount of his statements in fact were untrue. All that seems to suffice to the Republican following is Trump shouting "wrong!" over Hillary saying the truth, and I guess in today's world that just makes her wrong. I like the truth, and so him claiming he had a personal fight with Sean Hannity that he opposed the war does not mean his 2002 public claims will disappear. And him claiming the USA to have "Third World" airports or China controlling North Korea is so ridiculously incorrect it's embarrassing. Really!
Then again, how would Donald Trump know all that. I mean, we definitely can't argue he has any sort of experience in office Hillary is lacking, although that case has certainly been made. We live in a world where a woman who has served for 30 years, knowing close to everything there is to be known about the position on offer, has to share a stage with a man who thought "I can do what a woman can do", without anything actually qualifying him to make that assumption. Hillary actually missed a lot of chances illustrating how uneven this playing field really is. There he was saying nuclear weapons are the biggest problem ever, five seconds later calling her out on making the Iranians abandon their nuclear ambitions. What? By the time he claimed she didn't have the stamina to be President he seemed desperate.
Of course, that's not what the Republicans saw. I have often, very often, asked myself if I am blinded by my political conviction. Am I maybe the ignorant one who just wants to see Hillary succeed? I had to conclude it's almost impossible because I don't actually need her to win. I'm not American and I don't even love Hillary. My endorsement comes from fighting her fight of being a woman in a not-yet-equal world and, well, political accuracy of statements. I supported Barrack in both elections he was in, but both Mitt and John McCain had my respect. I spent two hours chatting with my Trump-loving friend yesterday because I don't actually believe political views different from mine make people bad. And yet, the hashtag #Trumpwon trending this morning just means there are at least people out there who cannot look at this rationally. In what rational mind does a man who blatantly lied on stage in front of millions "win" a debate? Often politics come down to opinion, and that's cool, but there really can't be a contest on who won this round...
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