On Monday September 26, 2016 Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met at Hofstra University for the first Presidential debate of this election season. This was a much anticipated event, despite the fact that during the longest primary in election history we saw both candidates debate numerous times, it was still nerve wracking to anticipate what would happen when you put these two on a stage together.
Prior to this debate Donald Trump had never, yes NEVER, participated in a face to face, one on one debate. Why? While the Republican primary had a ridiculous number of candidates seeking the office - so many in fact that the Republican Primaries required TWO separate debate stages for the candidates - Donald Trump, beyond the understanding of most political experts, always managed to poll high enough to debate on the main stage. Throughout the primary process his debate performances were baffling. Grand standing, insults, macho bravado, and no substantive policy points, yet his poll numbers climbed. As the discourse plummeted between the candidates, the field thinned and we were left with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kacish (who adorably held on for the hope that American wasn't completely off the rails) and of course, Donald Trump. But never did we have a face to face Republican Primary debate. Behind the scene "wheeling and dealing" convinced the candidates to graciously concede to the Donald, and he continued with his nonsensical, offensive rhetoric that fired up his crowds, and disheartened life long Republicans who were not quite ready to admit the party had died before their eyes.
Hillary Clinton, however, has had plenty of experience in face to face debates. Beyond the Democratic Primary of 2016 she faced Barack Obama in the 2008 Primary nearly a dozen times one on one. In 2000 she faced a number of face to face debates in her bid for the Senate seat in New York. Yet despite the plethora of hands on experience she had for this forum, she spent an entire week off the campaign trail studying, prepping and practicing for the debate.
The Donald? He spent the week doing what Donald does. Tweeting offensive rhetoric, pretending he never said something he is famous for saying and implying that Clinton wasn't prepping, but rather, was on her death bed and therefore should not be President.
The debate itself, was hard to watch at best. But the recaps have been the most frustrating because of how kind they have been to the Donald. Any other election year his performance would have been devastating. He was unprepared, incoherent, hostile, impatient and delusional enough to tout that his temperament was his best quality. It was enough for me to look around for Ashton Kutcher to pop out from behind the curtains to tell America they have just been Punk'd! However, because the bar was been set so low for him, the fact that it took him twenty minutes to completely unravel earned him somewhat neutral reviews. His essential temper tantrum on stage was dismissed as him "getting tired" because he's never participated in this format before. But he knew that going in, and if he took this seriously, would he not have prepared in order to be his best? It's like we make the same excuses for the Republican candidate for President of the United States as we do a toddler who starts acting up at a dinner party.
Now after his pathetic debate performance, that he and his uneducated and delusional, cult like supporters still somehow believe he won - he is teasing the media that his new strategy will be to condemn Hillary for the fact that her husband was unfaithful to her during his time in political office. Forget the fact that Donald Trump is on his third marriage - the first two having ended as a result of his infidelity - he still feels that she should be ashamed and have to answer for the actions of her husband, more than twenty years ago.
This is all enough to leave me baffled, and considering drafting a letter to East Carolina University seeking a refund for my political science degree, because none of what I learned seems to be true is anymore. Maybe the crazy people on the corner in the sandwich "THE END IS NEAR" signs were right. We just didn't realize they were talking about America.
