Donald Trump and the first Presidential Debate




“Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of Trump. Tonight he has shown himself to be unhinged, uncouth and most importantly unfit for the highest office in the country. It only a matter of time before Trump drops out, then we can finally go back to having a serious contest based on real issues.” pronounced a ‘serious’ pundit as he adjusted his glasses. This was part of the ‘analyses’ that followed the sixth primary debate that was held at the beginning of the year. Within six months Donald J Trump clinched the nomination of the Republican Party surpassing the required number of delegates required with considerable ease. Clearly the bespectacled pundit with fourth long years of covering US politics knew what he was talking about. 

Yesterday after the first Presidential debate, we heard the same pundit and his colleagues in mainstream media emphatically pronounce in unison that it was over for Trump. While the media was busy in scrutiny of every moment when Trump supposed destroyed himself, there was this account that had Trump sway Democrats and undecideds voters. The number 1 trend on Twitter was #TrumpWon. 

Almost all of the snap polls had Trump securing a victory:
·       Time Magazine: Trump 55%, Clinton 45%
·       CNBC: Trump 68%, Clinton 32%
·       The Hill: Trump 57%, Clinton 37%
·       Fortune: Trump 53%, Clinton 47%
·       Breitbart: Trump 76%, Clinton 24%
·       Drudge: Trump 82%, Clinton 18%

Hillary benefited for being more experience with thirty four such debates under her belt, and her experience that gave her  a command over the topics that were discussed. After the beating meted out to Matt Lauer for his fair questioning of Hillary about her emails during the Commander in Chief forum, it was obvious that moderator Lester Holt was going to go easy on Hillary and hard on Trump. Holt did not disappoint as served as her aide during the debate by focusing on Trump’s past instead of issues affecting Americans and their resolution.

The following were some of the important issues related to Hillary that were not even mentioned during the debate:
·       The 5 Aides Given Immunity By The FBI Or Her Reckless Secret Server
·       The Multiple False Statements About How Her "Extremely Careless" Actions Endangered National Security
·       Her "Basket Of Deplorables" insult
·       The corruption in the Clinton Foundation and the pay to play Accusations
·       Her failures and falsehoods about the attacks in Benghazi
·       Her speeches to Wall Street the contents of which she refuses to divulge
·       Her wanting To Put The Coal Industry Out Of Work
·       Her lack of transparency on her health

So how did Trump really perform at the Debate?  Trump had no major gaffe. He handled policy questions ably with his trademark humor directed at Hillary Clinton. He did question Clinton’s record as Secretary of State. Trump also achieved the important goal of showing stability and restraint, especially towards the end when Hillary directed a series of personal attacks, Trump could have brought up Bill’s women but he wisely avoided the subject. This may have been a colossal disappointment for his ardent supporters who wanted Hillary to be annihilated. But the goal here was to win those who are not ardent supporters and showing composure and dignity when subjected to vicious attacks was the right thing to do.



But Trump is a naturally gifted performer and is capable of destroying Hillary without really lowering himself. In the next debate must not hesitate to navigate to topics that the largely liberal hosts won’t broach and force Hillary to answer questions. It does not harm to even call out the host for focusing on the trivial and urging him to focus on issues.  He has to understand that he is in hostile territory with the media being in the tank for Hillary. It probably would not harm to rehearse a few punch lines, thoroughly learn about topics that he wants to talk about and that Hillary is likely to bring up. Trump also needs to work on brushing off personal insults that are used to bait and distract him, whenever items like his comments on women, the Birther or some of his failed businesses are brought up, he needs to say 'This isnt about me or you Hillary, this is about the country and the American people. Let's talk about what we can do for them." It is well known that Trump likes to be spontaneous, many of his brilliant moments during the primary debates were spontaneous. But that was a different game with a minimum of five people being on stage and hence the attention being divided. Here with only two people on stage it is prudent for Trump to be 70% prepared and leaving 30% to spontaneity.
The reaction from media and establishment proves once again that still have not and probably never will understand the bond that Trump has with his supporters. With a Romney or McCain, the support was more about the party obligation and less about the person. Hence a bad performance in the debate would probably affect their polls. In Trump’s case the support is across the board and party lines, we see a whole myriad of people from different groups from liberals, to conservatives, to independents.   This is about passion and excitement for the candidate, hence mistakes will be overlooked with Trump while it meant certain death for other. Also the liberal media has covered Trump’s remarks on Birther issue and on women to extend that it ceases to shock anybody anymore.

While most of the media focused on Trump’s behavior during the debate, but what was missed or perhaps purposefully ignore was the smugness that Hillary displayed towards the end of the debate. We saw Hillary either shake her head in dismay or smirk with condescension as Trump spoke. This was the very same hubris that produced the ‘Basket of Deplorable’ remark. It was almost like she was saying “I’m too good for this, he doesn’t deserve to be here”.  This was the sort of conceit displayed by Clinton during the 2008 primaries and we all know how that ended. The haughtiness eventually devolved into gloating after the debate as Hillary seems all too pleased with her performance. 



Perhaps it slipped Hillary’s mind that the final objective is not to win the debate but to win the elections. The voting public loves confidence but not arrogance.  It has to be remembered that Al Gore and John Kerry won all their debates emphatically versus George W. Bush but that did not translate into a victories. In the very first debate, Hillary Clinton attacked Trump with everything she thought would bring him down and yet Trump prevailed. She came across as mean, petty and arrogant while Trump came across as confident but restrained. Going by Trump’s track record, this debate will not stop his momentum. Trump will doubtlessly be better prepared with counter punches and that will be an absolute delight to all his supporters!  

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