8:00 – I’m going to live blog the debate. This won’t be a fact check, just my impressions of the debate as it goes.
Pre-debate, I understand that the campaigns try to set expectations, and that’s understandable – but not acceptable. Each candidate should be measured against a single standard. So I’ll see how I can do without giving either a pass.
8:05 – Questions are not known. Fun!
8:06 – Lester frames the question by giving the economy a positive spin.
8:07 – mentions her interest in children right off the bat. Small business is good. Trump looks shifty-eyed. Standard stump speech.
8:10 – Standard Trump speech – jobs are draining away. But that’s happening for 30 years or more. Will they mention the fact that wage inflation in other countries is slowing down the job drain?
8:12 – ‘trumped-up trickle down’? Is this new? Now she’s pointing out that Trump started from a mountain, while her family is a working class family.
8:14 – 14,000,000 is a small loan?
8:15 – she’s been Secretary for 30 years? But I don’t see how Lester could fact check without bogging down the debate, without submissions from the candidates. But Trump can’t answer the question.
8:17 – Did she pin other people’s misery on Trump? And will people buy it, or just consider it good business? Now she appeals to expert opinion – a tricky thing to do in today’s environment. Emphasizes specific plans.
8:20 – But NAFTA also had GOP support, I think.
8:22 – But how responsible is State for exports? Not sure.
8:24 – Trump is yelling over her – bullying? And she stands up to him. Good for her. The problem with no fact checking is that it’s hard to judge how well the exchange is really going.
8:25 – Donald, the market is here. And Reagan’s tax cut was followed by the biggest tax increase, so it’s hard to take seriously. But regulations may be a soft spot.
8:26 – the Clinton fact checking website!
8:27 – And Lester tries to hold the horses back!
8:30 – tax cut, tax cut, tax cut. Now he wants to remove the tax on foreign earnings – even though the GOP could have done it but didn’t. Yet we need infrastructure spending now. And if the foreign tax is removed, it won’t be spent on the inner cities – it’ll be sent to shareowners as dividends, or in research & development.
8:31 – Donald has trouble restraining himself. And now he claims Clinton is all talk, no action. Pot-Kettle-black. And, now we’re in a bubble – so that’s how he’ll deal with our current steady success.
8:34 – Still under audit? But the IRS Commisioner says he can release it, the IRS doesn’t care. Holt calls him on it. Oh, he gets audited every year. Happens to him only? Uh oh. Think about it, Donald. Now he wants to tie it to the deleted Clinton emails.
8:36 – Clinton tries to suggest his taxes show he has few positive qualities.
8:40 – Clinton admits to a mistake with the private mail server. Short and sweet. Donald claims it’s on purpose, not a mistake. Isn’t a mistake a deliberate action that shouldn’t have been taken? Donald falls back to a ragged defense of his taxes. Ah, but it’s good to hear he wants to at least revamp the airports – how bad are they? I’m not sure.
8:42 – Politicians squandering money – like the GOP, who’s controlled Congress for so many years, and couldn’t even submit a budget? Will listeners understand who’s in charge of the budget? It’s not the President.
8:43 – Donald is frantic to interrupt, and Lester’s in a quandary. Meanwhile, Clinton’s taking a shot at his supposed expertise. Now he refuses to address the shots – everything’s unbelievable. Better be careful, unbelievable can have multiple meanings.
8:45 – So is Donald advocating screwing people over as well? Are you under budget because of good or bad reasons?
8:50 – Race in the USA. Clinton speaks in terms of goals, references a plan – limitation of this format. Speaks to the police, who must be on board. Now wants to remove guns from the hands of criminals. Trump speaks of law & order – but we’re not in bad shape overall. Now he wants to use stop & frisk – which reportedly didn’t work.
8:52 – Lester shoots him down – and he disagrees! No they wouldn’t have lost on appeal, he says. Now he wants to blame it on migrants – with stop and frisk. So it’s quiet appeal that only migrants will be frisked. It’s a quiet dance with the NRA, who keep ignoring this anti-NRA stance.
8:55 – Clinton says stop and frisk is ineffective. Clinton has a plan, Donald has a plan – but his is of a dubious history, while hers is more nuanced in this two minutes. “The police are outgunned”, which should frighten the inner city – will that bring votes to Clinton.
9:00 – Both want to support the police. He brings up the term “super-predator”, not sure what that might be. Now they clash over stop and frisk and the current situation in NYC. Donald is now trying to chisel off the african american community, claiming they’ve been betrayed and they’re wonderful people.
9:03 – Now we’re off to the birther wars, sigh. He’s lying through his teeth about his behavior. Lester pushes Donald on it. Clinton smiles like an angel. A wrinkled angel 🙂
9:05 – Donald claims he has a great rep in the black community. Now Clinton fires back – I wonder if she should have just collapsed in laughter – the best way to pop the Big Lie balloon is with the dart of laughter. Now she reminds the audience of his record of racist behavior, the rental scandal. Now she clasps Obama to her buxom, after he claimed that she started the birther controversy. Now Donald worries at the bone.
9:06 – Nearly all of those lawsuits are settled without admission of guilt. So it’s meaningless.
9:10 – Security segment. Clinton leaps onto the pony, identifying cybersecurity as a critical problem. There’s a little knife named ‘Putin’ into Donald’s flank. Unfortunately for both candidates, this is more about knowledge than numbers, so a few people with great knowledge are more dangerous than a bunch of mundane hackers.
9:13 – Donald is hiding his lack of policy by repeating himself, citing support from generals and admirals (Clinton has more), repeating himself some more … it’s a stream of consciousness. He’s done and looks relieved that he doesn’t have to speak for a minute or two. Clinton notes that we’re pushing ISIS back, should have mentioned that Obama is responsible for our success.
9:18 – Donald doesn’t want to deal with the home-grown terrorism, so he blames Obama for Bush’s agreement to leave Iraq – and advocates the theft of Iraqi oil on top of it. Clinton gets to fire back and corrects him…. aaaaand she’s willing to address the original question. A “surge” of intelligence – what does this mean? She thanks police for hard work recently. Clinton advocates for alliances, and points out that Donald alienates those who she wants to work with.
9:21 – Actually, Iran is still choking on banking sanctions, and are generally restive about the entire nuclear treaty. But this is foreign info, so most Americans won’t know that.
9:25 – Donald is desperate to blame Bush’s decision on Obama. Now he denies he ever supported the War in Iraq. He cannot be swayed, despite the official publications. It occurs to me to wonder if this guy ever sleeps, since he goes everywhere and talks to everyone important. No, no, no. Yet it’s a GOP war, which he should be backing.
9:28 – “I have a much better temperament than she has!” Someone’s mad, and she looks mad. Clinton’s fired up and happy, and wants to talk about NATO – she knows that NATO went into Afghanistan with us, leaving Donald looking glum. She addresses the Iranian nuclear problem and pointsout we’ve solved the problem without shooting a single bullet. And she connects that with Donald’s tirade about temperament. Next debate they should turn off the candidate’s microphones when it’s not their turn.
9:30 I’ve fallen behind, so Donald is complaining about our defense treaties. Has he thought about the benefits of not having war for US?
9:35? – Nuclear war policy – Obama considered changing the policy? Wish I knew more. Donald’s right about China and North Korea. But he’s wrong about the cash to Iran – that was for a weapon system not delivered to Iran, and we owed it to them.
9:38? – Clinton reassures our allies. Will Donald? But will Trump supporters consider this important? They’re more focused on their own problems, and believe he will bring prosperity back to them.
9:40 – ISIS is being pushed back, not growing, Donald. Please stop lying. Business ability is not part of government. Clinton is delighted to hear that she doesn’t have the Presidential stamina and look – because she has the experience. Oh, it’s “bad experience”. Heh. Oh, dear, here comes the mud, everyone duck!
9:45 – oh, Lester wants to know if both candidates will accept the outcome of the election. Clinton says she’ll accept it. Donald found a way to say No, then Yes.
For the traditional voter, Clinton is the clear winner – plans available, unflustered, delighted sometimes. Donald was clawing, interrupting, bullying. But how many traditional voters are there, and how many will be impressed by Donald. How many voters, inclined to Trump, are willing to honestly investigate what he said – and change their minds if he comes up as a liar?
We’ll see how the polls come out in the next week.
