Posted on 09/29/2016 8:17:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Four years ago, you could have almost seen Bill Clinton’s thought bubble as he watched Barack Obama’s weak and listless performance against Mitt Romney during the first presidential debate: “I can’t believe we lost to this guy.”
Mr. Clinton never would have mailed it in the way Mr. Obama did. He may have lost some of his old magic, but he’s still got the golden touch.
His wife, however, never had it — and clearly never will, as evidenced by her plodding and grating debate performance against Donald Trump this week. At the same time, Mr. Trump was aggressive, projecting authority even when he was on relatively shaky ground. Unlike others who have opposed her, he didn’t care that she was a Clinton or a Democrat or a woman. He didn’t defer to her, offer special treatment or allow her a wide berth for Clintonian parsing.
Relishing his outsider role, he positioned her squarely in her role of status quo incumbent. By doing so and by clearing the bar of appearing a reasonable man and plausible president, he lived to fight another day.
Because he’s never done this before, voters give him a lot more running room to make mistakes and find his bearings. The fact that he more than held his own on the biggest political stage on earth is astounding. The traditional metrics don’t apply to this candidate or this election year, which is why he was able to walk away not just intact but perhaps stronger....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
yep. 2DV ... good one
Wow. You’re on a roll with these “Trump Won the Debate” posts tonight. Makes you wonder what the media is up to by putting there out.
Warning their leftist readers not to get complacent?
BS! Trump himself said he held back so as to not embarrass her. Sorry, but that was a huge mistake. He had the chance to bury her and instead played "not to lose". This allowed to breathe new life into the Clinton campaign and give her a little momentum.
I wish our side would stop trying to "walk the high ground" in order to "look Presidential". McCain tried it. Romney tried it. How did that work out?
I think Trump did as well as possible, given the situation.
It was a setup exactly, to try to get him to lose his cool, but he didn’t bite.
People need to realize this.
Relax. Trump is no mclame or mitts.
Celebrate that this is a good commentary from Washington times.
The point they miss is that this goes both ways.
Hillary Clinton was condescending and rude to Trump and men noticed. At this point men will crawl over broken glass to vote against her.
HRC won in the eyes of the LIVs and soccer/security moms, etc.
This should have been an easy and clear win for Trump, but as Rush noted before, he does not view liberals ideologically.
He was completely blindsided by her being who she is.
The drugged-up JokerFace didn’t win Mitt - no matter how many times the Media Streichers scream it.
She getsbit
You need to get you some Scott Adams.
Coffee with Scott Adams will calm you down. :)
BTW - the first debate was planned as a Trump slaughter.
If Team Clinton-Holt was able to make him mad, then they won. TOTAL victory.
If he didn't get mad - then it's presented as a Clinton "victory".
Trump threaded the Persuasion Needle. He won the snap polls, the Media lies about "the drubbing" - then more people come to realize that ALL the Media are lying sacks of Mitt.
Clinton comes off as a drugged Joker-Face.
See my post #12. :)
See my post #12. :)
Love this line:
"Relishing his outsider role, he positioned her squarely in her role of status quo incumbent."
This shows the savvy Trump strategy. All evening he called her "Secretary Clinton". He treated her office with respect, and it was beautiful positioning.
Now, there's no way that the Madame Secretary can be considered a Washington outsider. She is part of the Establishment in a year when it's time for the Establishment to fall.
Nice work, Mister President Trump.
Remember; for many people this was a first impression thing. Trump captured that in the first 30 minutes. The rest was far less important. As long as there was nothing major.
Exactly. Crowley gets it. Trump’s task was to show the world that he’s not a dangerous loon.
He had to be calm and respectful with no outbursts, no hotheaded moments and he did it. Not only will he turn some undecideds his way, he provided cover for reluctant Republicans who have started to come to their senses.
TRUMP: You know, Hillary is hitting me with tremendous commercials. Some of it's said in entertainment. Some of it's said -- somebody who's been very vicious to me, Rosie O'Donnell, I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her.
But you want to know the truth? I was going to say something...
HOLT: Please very quickly.
TRUMP: ... extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, "I can't do it. I just can't do it. It's inappropriate. It's not nice." But she spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads on me, many of which are absolutely untrue. They're untrue. And they're misrepresentations.
And I will tell you this, Lester: It's not nice. And I don't deserve that.
But it's certainly not a nice thing that she's done. It's hundreds of millions of ads. And the only gratifying thing is, I saw the polls come in today, and with all of that money...
Did they get to have opening and closing statements like at a normal debate? I think Trump could have put it away with a good closing statement.
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