If Donald Trump shows up for the second debate in St. Louis, he’s either a glutton for punishment or still wallowing in a pit of self-delusion, believing he defeated Hillary Clinton Tuesday night at Hofstra University.
Walloped, clobbered, vanquished or practically annihilated—you pick the verb to describe the extent to which Trump was thoroughly outclassed and outfoxed in the first of three debates.
In a debate, particularly in this visual age we live in, you watch for telltale signs, a practice that began most auspiciously in 1960 when Richard Nixon broke out in a cold sweat during a televised debate with John Kennedy. Trump’s nervousness was apparent with the first sip of water delivered by a shaking hand. When the split screen was not exposing his emptiness, his redundancy, his unpreparedness did him in.
After an opening exchange Trump wasted no time going on the attack and, surprisingly, did fairly well and was at the top of what little game he has on trade.
“Our jobs are fleeing the country,” he began when asked about his plan to secure jobs in the U.S. “They’re going to Mexico. They’re going to many other countries. You look at what China is doing to our country in terms of making our product. They’re devaluing their currency, and there’s nobody in our government to fight them. And we have a very good fight. And we have a winning fight.”
There was scant evidence of a “winning fight” from him for the rest of the night. Clinton deflected his puny jabs of interruption and parried each of his attempts to get under her skin and upset her well-orchestrated war of words.
Clinton had several zinger moments, two of which drew applause and cheers from an audience that moderator Lester Holt had cautioned to sit on their emotions, as he did as well for the most part.
The loudest outburst came when Trump was reminded of his accusation about Clinton’s look, which he quickly changed into a charge that she lacked stamina, perhaps invoking the candidate’s recent bout of pneumonia and coughing fits.
“Well, as soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina,” Clinton responded.
And the basically restrained crowd offered another moment of pleasure when Clinton admitted she had prepared for the debate, indicating that Trump had not. “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And, yes, I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that’s a good thing,” she said.
On inevitable questions about race, the recent uptick of police brutality and national security, Clinton again bested Trump, and many snickered at her catchphrase of “Trumped-up and trickle-down” to dismiss her opponent’s invisible economic plan.
“We’ve got to do several things at the same time,” she said, explaining how she will deal with police and community relations. “We have to restore trust between communities and the police. We have to work to make sure that our police are using the best training, the best techniques, that they’re well prepared to use force only when necessary. Everyone should be respected by the law, and everyone should respect the law.”
Any mention of law was an opportunity for Trump to put forth his oft-repeated call for law and order, to which lately he’s attached stop-and-frisk. He tried to show the effectiveness of stop-and-frisk, but the moderator, for a change, challenged him on this issue, citing a judge’s decision in New York that the practice was unconstitutional. And Clinton deftly underscored this point.
She also painted a different picture of the African-American communities that Trump had characterized as living hells. Clinton cited the vibrancy of the Black church, as well as “Black businesses that employ so many people, the opportunities that so many families are working to provide for their kids. There’s a lot that we should be proud of and we should be supporting and lifting up.”
And so it went, and Trump was as pointless on domestic issues as he was on foreign policy and security. He has said on a number of occasions he has a plan to defeat ISIS but that he can’t reveal that plan. He also won’t reveal his income tax returns or the other matter he said was not nice to talk about.
Gertrude Stein could have been talking about Trump when she uttered, “There’s no there there.”
All of the polls conducted Tuesday night after the debate had Clinton a clear winner. Two focus groups were equally decisive about Clinton’s triumph. How this outcome translates in the gaggle of polls is to be seen, but Clinton should get a bump, all things considered.
There have been intimations that Trump may call it day and charge that the debates are rigged and duff.
But if anyone should not show up Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis, it should be Clinton. Why further dignify a candidate with not an iota of passion for the downtrodden, no feasible plan to “make America great again,” unless by that he means to drag us back to the scaffold and the auction block.
“Trumped up and trickle-down” was Clinton’s summary of her adversary, and if she hadn’t pulled so many punches, he could have been beaten to a fare-thee-well.