When the first Presidential debate of 2016 finally ended last night, almost all of the pundits had declared a decisive victory for Hillary Clinton. Of course, that fact was clear to all but the comatose among us who watched the debate.
Hillary Clinton, no stranger to the debate stage, came prepared to win. She was in command of policy and facts. She managed that seemingly unattainable objective of being confident without being perceived as “bitchy”, feminine without being “soft”, intelligent without being “preachy”… you can fill in the blanks. She was on top of game. She worked in a personal story about her father, the drape-maker, and then managed to turn that into an insult to Donald’s business ethics while she was at it. Hillary baited Trump, not in an obvious, rude way, but in a subtle way, with facts and, often, his own words. And, time after time, Trump took the bait.
Trump, on the other hand, was clearly not prepared for a 90 minute, head-to-head debate of this caliber. He started off strong enough talking about trade. But, once they got to the issue of race, he had nothing to say. And, by the time they got to issues of national security — NATO, nukes, Japan, Cyber security — he was so far out of his depth you could almost feel sorry for him… almost. He rambled, stammered, couldn’t stand still, and interrupted, sometimes with one word exclamations, like, “Wrong!”, or “Lies!”. Despite the fact that the press was all over him in the days leading up to the debate for all of the lies he has told throughout his campaign, he did not modify this behavior for the debate, but instead told some blatant, easily fact-checked lies. (For example, he did support the war in Iraq, and he did reject the scientific consensus on climate change.)
But, what I am really worried about is what is to come. Do you know that Trump interrupted Hillary 51 times last night?!! As a powerful woman in a “man’s world”, I imagine Hillary is used to such things, but, please tell me I am not the only person who found it jarring. And, at the end of the debate, Donald alluded to there being something harsh he “could have said” about Hillary and her family, but he decided not to. Today he said he might just have to get tougher next time. And, Giuliani actually brought up Monica Lewinsky. So, are they planning to “go there”? Are they planning to take the misogyny to the next level?
I guess in a way I hope they do… I think it will backfire. I think it will turn off women voters, who I believe know that the only two people who know what goes on in a marriage are the two people in it, and therefore they are the only ones fit to decide what should happen to that marriage if infidelity occurs. And, I think Millennials will just laugh it off. I don’t think they will see the big deal with a young woman that age engaging in a sexual relationship with an older man, even if he is her boss. The only people who will care about this are the people who are already voting for Trump.
Oh, and I will care. I have come late to the Hillary bandwagon. I am a big Bernie Sanders supporter. Don’t get me wrong. When Hillary won the primary, I decided to vote for her. But, my vote was more a vote against Trump. But, I saw how Hillary worked with Bernie and others to put together the most progressive platform I’ve seen in my lifetime. And, I was impressed. And, she hasn’t pivoted from that platform, but has embraced it and made it her own. I have remained impressed. I remember thinking how much I admired her for the way she handled herself throughout the Lewinsky affair. I admired her, not for “standing by her man”, so much as staying true to herself, no matter how difficult it must have been. So, if Trump and his surrogates want to throw that whole mess at her again, then I guess it’s time for me to utter those three little words that have been missing from my vocabulary these past few months:
I’M WITH HER!!
