The First Presidential Debate & VP Debate

9/26/16 1^st Presidential Debate

Hillary clearly prepped for the debate to come across as calm and condescending while pushing Trump’s buttons.  He stayed measured & civil for the first half hour, then began to get more emotional and defensive.  My “fact-check” or counters in brackets [ ].  Hillary repeatedly claimed to have the facts on her website, smirked at Trump.

Jobs & Economy

C.: Need lots of new jobs [how?  Obama’s policies destroyed jobs], fairer pay, profit-sharing [destroy more jobs?], child care.

T: Stop jobs from going abroad, lower business taxes, and renegotiate trade deals.

C: Trump’s plan is “Trumped up” trickle-down.  Trump was fortunate [she’s not w. wealth from public service?]

T: H. hasn’t done anything about bad trade deals in all her yrs. in government.

C: Worst crisis 8 yrs. ago due to less regulations [no, too much – forcing lenders to do sub-prime loans]

T: Can’t rebuild jobs w. $20Trillion in national debt [Obama doubled it].  She’ll raise taxes, increase regulations – both are bad for business.

C: Won’t raise taxes on small businesses [big deal – they’ve already been going under due to Obamacare, regulations,] “I have a feeling that by the end of the debate I’ll be blamed for everything.”

T: “Why not?”

C: “Trump loophole” for the wealthy.  Trickle-down got us in trouble 8 yrs. ago [??? No, subprime loans forced by Dems]

T: $800B trade deficit – because of political hacks negotiating.

C: Release Trump’s tax returns – hiding something? She postulated several possible reasons he hasn’t.

T: Will release them when she releases her 33,000 missing (deleted) emails.  That was more than a mistake – disgraceful.  “I’m well-leveraged.”  It’s about time this country had someone running it who knows about money.  We’re a debtor nation – we’ve squandered wealth w. her/Democrat policies.

C: Cited people he’s stiffed in business deals. [She’s stiffed the neediest people in Haiti, rape victims of her husband, Obamacare premiums, Israel & other allies,…]

T: I’ve used the laws (e.g., bankruptcy), have 10’s of thousands of very happy employees.

America’s Direction – healing the social divide – police shootings, etc.)

C: race determines much (education, jobs, justice), e.g., Tulsa & Charlotte.  Need to train police better, mutual respect, guns.

T: Need law & order – e.g., in Charlotte.  He’s endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.  Inner cities living in hell.  Need stop & frisk [as in NYC] – bad people shouldn’t have guns.  Blacks & Hispanics are most hurt by violence.

C: Trump paints dire picture of Black communities.  Implicit bias affects all of us.

T: She brought up “super-predator” regarding Black youth.  Stop & frisk brought down murders from 2500 to 500.  Black community is used by Dems for votes, then forgotten after the election.

Moderator: birther accusation

T: Clinton’s associates started it

C: Trump disrespected the president.

T: She disrespected Obama in the 2008 campaign.  Trump isn’t spending the money she is on negative ads.

Securing America

C: Cyber warfare a big threat [she’s late recognizing that after having a private server w. classified & sensitive info].  Trump invited Russia to hack us [her]

T: Just endorsed by 200 admirals and generals, and border patrol & ICE.  In one hack we learned that Sanders was taken advantage of.  We have to get tough on cyber warfare.

C: Go after ISIS – cyber, more air strikes.

Moderator: How do we prevent home-grown terrorists?

T: Obama & Clinton created a vacuum that resulted in ISIS, and they’ve been dealing w. them for years.

C: We need Muslim allies

T: She’s been working w. these countries for years & we have a mess.  NATO needs to focus on terror & other countries need to pay their fair share.  Knock the hell out of ISIS, and fast.  ISIS is now in 30 countries under her watch.  He defended his winning temperament, she smirked. 

H: Trump has cavalier attitude about nuclear weapons [what about the Iran deal?].  A man who can be provoked by a tweet shouldn’t have his finger on the nuclear code.

Moderator: Obama wants to change the policy on nuclear first use

T: our nuclear forces are aged.  He doesn’t want first strike.  The Iran deal is terrible – a great give-away that will lead to nuclear problems. 

H: Words matter – must assure allies we’ll honor mutual defense treaties [oh? And how about Poland, Ukraine,…]. She touted all the countries she’s visited [shoot, I’ve visited a lot of countries, too.  But I didn’t leave our foreign policy & the world’s security in shambles].

T: She has experience, but bad experience.  We can’t afford another 4 years of bad experience.

C: She pulled the sexist card

Observations:  Some noted that Trump missed various opportunities to go after her record on women (attacking Bill’s victims, money from Islamic dictatorships…).  The moderator (Holt) did do real-time fact-checking against Trump, and interrupted Trump much more than Hillary.  No news there, that the media is blatantly biased.  She kept calling for fact checking, as if she has a monopoly (or even a foothold) on truth.  But she made repeated factual errors – crime in NYC is up, flipped on TPP.  The liar-in-chief has a monopoly on truth & facts????

10/4/16 Vice Presidential Debate

Kaine: The success of an administration is the difference it made in peoples’ lives [not many view their lives as better as result of Obama’s admin.].  The thought of Trump as commander in chief scares us to death [not as much as the thought of Hillary.  Kaine came out swinging and didn’t let up – a good attack dog.]

Pence: We’ve seen America’s place in the world & economy weakened.

Q: Why is Hillary distrusted?  K: explained why he trusts her – long record of public service [correlated w. corruption].  Trump called Mexicans rapists and criminals. 

Q: Why is Trump seen as too erratic? P: Kaine & Hillary would know about insults – theirs is an insult-driven campaign.  Trump built business and many jobs.

K: H. got rid of OBL, did the Iran nuke deal.

P: ISIS has overrun much of Iraq & Syria.

Economy

P: Obama doubled the national debt.  Pence’s record as governor – lowered debt, better employment.  H&K want more of Obama’s policies.  We need to get rid of Obama’s regulations, Obamacare.

K:  Invest in infrastructure & clean energy [where have we heard that before, including “shovel-ready jobs”?], promote small business [not w. Obama’s regulations & Obamacare].  Their plan a “you’re hired” plan, Trump’s a “you’re fired” plan [catchy phrase, no substance to it], and tax breaks for the wealthy – he blamed this recession on that [rather than government-mandated sub-prime loans]. 

Q: Trump’s taxes (or lack of payment) fair?  P: [I think he pointed out that he paid payroll taxes, state & local, etc., and his many employees paid.  Of course he took a legitimate tax deduction for losses in a bad economy.]

Q: Social Security is in jeopardy – what should be done?

K: Adjust payroll tax cap up, don’t privatize it.

Security

Q: Do we put too much on the police (society’s problems)?

K: Need community policing & fight scourge of gun violence.  Background checks.

P: Police are the best of us.  Community policing is a great idea, restore law and order.  Bad-mouthing of police – “institutional racism,” etc.  Let’s not have the reflex of assuming the worst in police.  Border patrol union supports Trump.  Hillary insulting – half of Trump’s supporters “deplorable, irredeemable.”

K: Trump never apologizes – Hillary wants ?, Trump wants deportation.

P: ICE support, their plan open borders & amnesty.

Q: Has the terrorist threat increased or decreased?

K: Both.  Trump trashed generals, alliances [Obama trashed Israel, UK,…], praises Putin

P: America is less safe – Hillary was the architect of foreign policy.  We’ve got to err on the side of safety of Americans when deciding who can come in to the U.S.

Q: Syria – does US have responsibility there?

P: US should take responsibility.  Hillary had Russian “reset” & now they dis us & cease-fires.  We need stronger leadership & military.  Hillary & Obama awakened a hibernating Russian bear.

K: Reagan said the problem with nukes is the danger that some fool or maniac will start nuclear war – like Trump.

P: That’s even beneath you & Hillary.  The Iran deal – prematurely lifted sanctions.

K: Worried over Trump’s bottom line in future dealing w. Russia [business interests implied?  But Hillary’s pay-to-play already demonstrated].  Hillary knows exactly who Putin is [!!?? With the reset and all?]

Q: N. Korea – what steps to stop nukes on America?

P: De-nuclearization of Korean peninsula, stop China’s expansion.  Clinton Foundation allowed foreign governments to contribute – pay-to-play.

K: Compared Clinton & Trump foundations – claimed Trump’s suspect. On N. Korea, work w. China.  Trump borrowed from China.

Other

Q: Balance personal faith & public policy?

K: Raised by Jesuits, struggled w. death penalty as governor

P: Also raised in faithful family.  Sanctity of life – “before I formed thee in the womb I knew you.” (Job).  Pro-life, adoption.  K &^H support partial birth abortion.

K: Shouldn’t punish women who have abortions.  Don’t you trust women to make their own decisions?  [A poor standard for a law – do we not have motor vehicle laws because we should trust all drivers? Etc., etc.]

P: No, we don’t support punishing them.

Q: A divisive campaign – how do we unite?

K: “Stronger together” is their motto.  Hillary worked across the aisle.

P: Come together through change in Washington, D.C.  Trump’s whole career is about building.  Real change after decades of just talking about it.  Lack of leadership is our main problem.

My analysis.  Kaine was overpracticed, like Hillary, scripted.  Pence acknowledged Trump is not a polished politician – an excuse for not being totally clear on some statements.  Dems chose to interpret in the most negative possible way.