Posted on 09/27/2016 6:47:38 AM PDT by libertarian27
Trump and Clinton debated each other for the first time last night. Here’s how I score the night.
Clinton won on points. She had more command of the details and the cleaner answers. Trump did a lot of interrupting and he was defensive. If this were a college debate competition, Clinton would be declared the winner. I call that victory on the 2D chess board. But voters don’t care about facts and debating style. They care about how they feel. So let’s talk about that.
For starters, Trump and Clinton both seemed “presidential” enough. That mattered more for Trump. We haven’t seen him off the teleprompter lately. So Trump passed that test by being sufficiently serious.
Clinton looked (to my eyes) as if she was drugged, tired, sick, or generally unhealthy, even though she was mentally alert and spoke well. But her eyes were telling a different story. She had the look of someone whose doctors had engineered 90 minutes of alertness for her just for the event. If she continues with a light campaign schedule, you should assume my observation is valid, and she wasn’t at 100%.
Some will say Clinton outperformed expectations because she didn’t cough, collapse, or die right on stage. That would be true if she also looked healthy in general, and her campaign schedule from here on out is full. We’ll know more this week, based on her schedule.
Clinton’s smile seemed forced, artificial, and frankly creepy. I’m already hearing on Twitter that mentioning a woman’s smile is sexist. I understand the point. But when someone goes full Joker-face and tests the uncanny valley hypothesis at the same time, that’s a bit different from telling a woman to “smile more.” My neighbor Kristina hypothesized that Botox was making her smile look unnatural. Science tells us that when a person’s mouth smiles, but their eyes don’t match the smile, they look disingenuous if not creepy. Botox on your crow’s feet lines around your eyes can give that effect. But whatever the reason, something looked off to me.
To be fair, Trump’s physical appearance won’t win him any votes either. But his makeup looked better than I have seen it (no orange), his haircut was as good as it gets for him, and he was otherwise his normal self that some voters hate and some like.
But the most interesting question has to do with what problem both of them were trying to solve with the debate. Clinton tried to look healthy, and as I mentioned, I don’t think she completely succeeded. But Trump needed to solve exactly one problem: Look less scary. Trump needed to counter Clinton’s successful branding of him as having a bad temperament to the point of being dangerous to the country. Trump accomplished exactly that…by…losing the debate.
Trump was defensive, and debated poorly at points, but he did not look crazy. And pundits noticed that he intentionally avoided using his strongest attacks regarding Bill Clinton’s scandals. In other words, he showed control. He stayed in the presidential zone under pressure. And in so doing, he solved for his only remaining problem. He looked safer.
By tomorrow, no one will remember what either of them said during the debate. But we will remember how they made us feel.
Clinton won the debate last night. And while she was doing it, Trump won the election. He had one thing to accomplish – being less scary – and he did it.
What if he's half right?
Her unstable walk to the podium, her joker smile, and her weird, prolonged shimmy are proof that she is medically compromised.
"Pundits noticed that he intentionally avoided using his strongest attacks regarding Bill Clinton’s scandals. In other words, he showed control. He stayed in the presidential zone under pressure."
True.
Trump demonstrated discipline as many of us were screaming, "CLINTON FOUNDATION!! BENGHAZI!!"
He simply reserved the heavy artillery for the other two debates (Hitlery's Benghazi disgrace, her "lost" emails, illegal Private Server, Pay-to-Play vis a vis the Clinton Foundation, all those $250k speeches by she and her hubby, etc.)
Why blow all that on the first debate? Let her shoot her wad.
Lester Holt teed up the very BEST beachballs he could for Hitlery: The BC, Trump's taxes, and The Hag's Rosie O'Donnell/Sexism quotes. In doing so, The Hag looked smug and unlikable. EXACTLY why people won't vote for her.
I agree -- The Witch won ON POINTS, but Adams reinforces the notion that it is EMOTION and sincerity that will win this election. Trump weathered the blitz. He'll take Hitlery out with his ample reserve of A-Bombs.
All of Hillary’s best from the left slams are already used up.
Is she going to harp on Obama’s BC or Trump’s sad loaning him money at another debate? Not likely, but now terrorism, immigration, her emails, Bill’s past, Hillary’s past, and the Foundation are still looming.
This was her one best shot, and it wasn’t effective and it was too early.
This is the positive side of the debate I saw as well. People hate hillary, but are afraid trump is a crazy man. They need any excuse to vote for him if only he can help them believe he really is a “normal” and “responsible” human being. If he does that, he gets the disgruntled Hispanics, Blacks, Berne supporters in strong numbers.
I think he did that with his Mexico speeches, and further drove the point home last night.
To use an old Firesign Theater line: Vote for Trump. Not insane.
Fox had the dial test lady on this morning. What jumped out at me, as it always does, is that the Independents continue to track tightly along with the Republicans each and every time.
Trump has the Independents.
She’s getting Tim Kaine pedo-clown face. She also looks like she could eat an apple through a picket fence.
Some of that, and quite a bit of "lost opportunity" where Trump could have answered better.
-- It was actually a pretty boring debate compared to what we were hoping for. --
heheheh. In the eye of the beholder. I found the debate "exciting," I expected a reserved Trump, and man, he came out swinging.
-- Turn the cameras off and I have a feeling they could both get pretty nasty at each other. --
You are so right! Did you catch Trump's remark on Hillary's temperament when she is not on camera?
TRUMP: Wait. The AFL-CIO the other day, behind the blue screen, I don't know who you were talking to, Secretary Clinton, but you were totally out of control. I said, there's a person with a temperament that's got a problem.
Boring debate=win for Trump.
He did what he had to do, exactly as the author stated. He had to shake off the left’s phony image of him as a wild eyed loon.
Yes, he should have jumped into the opening about the emails. Benghazi needs to be addressed. But, all that would have happened was a pre rehearsed, canned response from Hillary.
He can beat the snot out of her on his home turf—social media by way of videos. His surrogates, particularly Rudy can hammer her into oblivion.
This was not his only chance to raise those issues.
He won the night by showing himself to be serious, sober and a steady hand at the helm.
Watching the plane debrief now and you are right. Heavy blinking,eye not tracking and eyes always moving.
"Abnormal involuntary movements or muscle twitches called tics
(for example, excessive eye-blinking, nose scrunching, or shoulder shrugging) can be associated with amphetamines."
I thought Trump got clobbered until my wife asked me if we should get out of the stack market because of Trump’s warning about Yellen and the interest rates. At that moment I became enlightened.
Live video NOW
Coffee with Scott Adams
https://www.periscope.tv/ScottAdamsSays/1mnGeYdyEAEGX
https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays?lang=en
(replay available afterwards)
Seems pretty light compared to Trump’s schedule. I filtered out all the lines except for the ones that have “Hillary Clinton” in the title:
September 27, 2016 Raleigh, North Carolina Rally Hillary Clinton
September 28, 2016 Durham, New Hampshire New College Compact Event Hillary Clinton & Senator Bernie Sanders
September 29, 2016 Des Moines, Iowa Early Voting Event Hillary Clinton
September 30, 2016 St. Lucie County, Florida Rally Hillary Clinton
September 30, 2016 Broward County, Florida Rally Hillary Clinton
October 5, 2016 Washington, DC Fundraiser Hillary Clinton
October 9, 2016 St. Louis, Missouri Presidential Debate Hillary Clinton
October 19, 2016 Las Vegas, Nevada Presidential Debate Hillary Clinton
“I think Trump needs to address the moderators at the next debate”
I think Trump needs to demand his own moderator. It should be someone utterly unacceptable to Rotten Cankles and the demonrats.
Doubt you'll see much of her for a few days....she has to get thru withdrawal before she makes any long appearance's
Eagerly awaiting someone working up that grin into the Joker motif.
Because she received the questions a week before the debate.
Clinton Received Debate Questions Week Before Debate, According to Sources
Agreed.
She’s talking on her plane right now and I swear she’s high as a kite. Head bobbing, a little too loose, eyes unfocused, smiling inappropriately.
What the hell do they have her on?
And where can I get some to help me through the next debate?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.