Through my time as a Content Creator for Odyssey, I have kept a more neutral stance on politics. I have written about voting and the danger of a third party, but today I feel obliged to take the presidential debate and give my honest opinions. I could spend hours writing about Donald Trump's campaign and whether or not he is fit to be president, or about Hillary Clinton and her misgivings, but I won't. On November 8, 2016, we will have a choice between two candidates, and one will win. I want to take the time to review Monday's debate and take an objective look at which of these candidates is fit to take office.
We will go through four categories to decide who really won the debate; Policies, how the candidates acted, how truthful they were, and the results of post-debate polls.
Polices:
This is the most subjective category, but it has its basis in fact. I will look at claims made by the candidates about their policies and put them to the test of facts. Donald claimed that Hillary's tax plan would increase the national debt and that his own plan would cut spending and boost the economy yet the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group, found that her tax plan would leave the GDP to debt level at 86% to the current 75% of the current administration and that Donald's plan would increase the debt by 5.3 trillion. On the Clinton side of things there is not much to say, she hasn't claimed much about her proposed ideas and has only stated what she believes would help America. So, while not much to compare in this category I would give the win to Hillary.
Temperament:
This one practically writes itself, considering both Clinton and Trump constantly interrupted the moderator and talking for more time then they where given neither candidate will be gaining points there. However, Donald Trump constantly interrupted Hillary with shouts of "Nope", "wrong", "lying" and "I never said that." At least once Hillary had to restart her speech due to Donald Trump taking it over and veering her off topic. now, both candidates interrupted their opponent, but Hillary did it only 17 times with Trump interrupting 51 times. Considering Donald interrupted her 3 times as much it makes me laugh when he said "I think my strongest asset by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament,"
Truthfulness:
Both sides of this debate told plenty of lies, and both candidates said a lot of things that seemed outlandish, but one was defiantly more truthful. Hillary Clinton is by far the most truthful candidate. One of her main goals in this debate was to rebuild trust with her voters and I believe she has done it beginning with an apology for her emails. On the other hand, Donald Trump said so much I don't know where to begin. He claimed to never have ever said global warming was a hoax, but in 2012 said on twitter it was a myth perpetuated by the Chinese. Later he claimed that Patti Doyle had sent people to figure out about President Obama's birth certificate in Kenya, which later was rebuked by Doyle herself stating "Yeah, we never did that." So, another point for Clinton.
Debate Results:
This is a clear cut and obvious category, it is simple statistics. 62% of voters said Clinton won, with only 27% in favor of Trump, according to a CNN poll. Clinton won in many categories, including addressing voting concerns, sincerity, and with a majority of 54% of independents favoring Clinton. Trump won in just a single category, aggressiveness. So, once again we give Secretary Clinton the victory.
So, overall Clinton has won drastically in every part of the debate. Honestly, I am not surprised, she has been practicing for this debate and her experience of 30 years has shown. Between Trump's lies, his proposed tax system and his attitude Trump just isn't fit to be president. His inability to control himself and be respectful to Hillary who greeted him when they came on stage just shows his inexperience to become our president. This debate should be seen as a foreshadowing to what the future will hold, with Clinton leading in every category and Trump yelling and screaming. However, I will give Trump one bonus point, for wearing an American Flag lapel pin. It went nice with his suit.
