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The Debate PLUS Der Donald's Superpower
Oct. 10th, 2016 11:44 amCNN said Clinton won; Fox News said Trump won.
The CNN poll broke down pretty much along the lines of pre-debate partisanship, and I expect the Fox News poll broke down similarly.
I thought Trump won.
'Course my expectations were so low for Trump that so long as he didn't start gibbering about his precious bodily fluids and have to be led off stage by a handler, I might have thought that counted as a win. It's hard to know.
###
Trump made what to me was the one unarguably true statement of the evening: Aleppo has already fallen.
In 2008, when Obama made his More Perfect Union speech, I had a kind of similar reaction. A physical reaction: The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Wow, I thought. Someone who’s running for office who’s not shrouding a hot, controversial topic in self-serving euphemism!
Of course, practically everything else that came out of Trump’s mouth was his usual trademarked brand of bloviation, allegation, obfuscation, and outright lies. One is reminded of the stopped clock.
But he’s right about Syria. Democracy does not work in that part of the world, at least not now, and if you want stability in the region, you’re gonna have to put up with meglomaniacal strongmen like Assad. Getting rid of Muammar Gaddafi? Didn’t work out so good, Hills.
###
The other thing Trump was extremely effective at was channeling my anger.
It’s the same small, dark rain cloud of rage that I assume floats perpetually over most people’s heads: Why haven’t I won the Nobel Prize for Literature yet? Why did my offspring run up a $275 phone bill last month on our shared account?
My jaw clenched ever more tightly every time HRC trotted out that beautific, bemused smile. That smile that says, Gosh! There he goes again! Can you believe it? That smile her debate prep team had probably spent months teaching her: One knows instinctively that this is not the way Hills smiles when she’s shooting the shit with Huma or her close personal friends at Goldman Sachs.
That smile went through so many changes as the evening progressed! By the time Der Donald was going off into his misinformed rant about “clean coal” – a/k/a the great white whale of Republican energy policy since the times of Reagan – she seemed to be forcibly struggling with that smile as though it had taken on a life of its own, as though it was some kind of buccal equivalent of Dr. Strangelove’s Nazi-saluting arm. And what was that babble about coal miners? They turned the lights on! I don’t want to walk away from them –
So now she’s fuckin’ Loretta Lynn? I thought. Who knew Hollywood was doing a reboot of The Coalminer’s Daughter! And that Hillary was angling for the role!
Psst, Hills – it’s kinda ingenuous, to say the least, that America is now “energy independent” considering the fact that while, yes it’s true, the U.S. is now the number one oil producer in the world, it all goes into a global exchange, which we pay to access at the same inflated rates as everyone else.
###
But all the while I was sitting there growing angrier and angrier, I was also trying to figure out just why I was growing so angry. I mean, you know: My life is actually pretty good. You need to have a body of work to win the Nobel Prize after all (which I don’t have), and despite occasional thoughtlessness – and I was so-o-o much worse at their age – my kids are good kids with affection for their eccentric mother.
Really, it was Donald Trump who was making me angry!
By that, I don’t mean that his actions were making me angry. Although I think he’s the lowest form of racist, sexist slime, I find his theatrics quite amusing. I like that he punked reporters by leading them to believe he was hosting a meet and greet only to be confronted by the Bill Clinton sexual assault lineup. I like that he has shattered the Republican Party. I like that he prowled around the diminutive Hillary on stage, stalking her like some sort of demented ghost of Benghazis past. I like that he has reduced so many of my liberal acquaintances to fulminating sputters.
Don’t get me wrong. Trump is mega-creepy. But I’m kind of enjoying the chaos.
No, I mean that Trump has a genuine talent for catalyzing rage.
Almost like a superpower!
Hitler – sorry, Godwin! – had the same thing.
This makes Trump very, very dangerous.
Fortunately, he doesn’t have a chance in hell of winning the election. But I gotta give him this debate.
The CNN poll broke down pretty much along the lines of pre-debate partisanship, and I expect the Fox News poll broke down similarly.
I thought Trump won.
'Course my expectations were so low for Trump that so long as he didn't start gibbering about his precious bodily fluids and have to be led off stage by a handler, I might have thought that counted as a win. It's hard to know.
###
Trump made what to me was the one unarguably true statement of the evening: Aleppo has already fallen.
In 2008, when Obama made his More Perfect Union speech, I had a kind of similar reaction. A physical reaction: The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Wow, I thought. Someone who’s running for office who’s not shrouding a hot, controversial topic in self-serving euphemism!
Of course, practically everything else that came out of Trump’s mouth was his usual trademarked brand of bloviation, allegation, obfuscation, and outright lies. One is reminded of the stopped clock.
But he’s right about Syria. Democracy does not work in that part of the world, at least not now, and if you want stability in the region, you’re gonna have to put up with meglomaniacal strongmen like Assad. Getting rid of Muammar Gaddafi? Didn’t work out so good, Hills.
###
The other thing Trump was extremely effective at was channeling my anger.
It’s the same small, dark rain cloud of rage that I assume floats perpetually over most people’s heads: Why haven’t I won the Nobel Prize for Literature yet? Why did my offspring run up a $275 phone bill last month on our shared account?
My jaw clenched ever more tightly every time HRC trotted out that beautific, bemused smile. That smile that says, Gosh! There he goes again! Can you believe it? That smile her debate prep team had probably spent months teaching her: One knows instinctively that this is not the way Hills smiles when she’s shooting the shit with Huma or her close personal friends at Goldman Sachs.
That smile went through so many changes as the evening progressed! By the time Der Donald was going off into his misinformed rant about “clean coal” – a/k/a the great white whale of Republican energy policy since the times of Reagan – she seemed to be forcibly struggling with that smile as though it had taken on a life of its own, as though it was some kind of buccal equivalent of Dr. Strangelove’s Nazi-saluting arm. And what was that babble about coal miners? They turned the lights on! I don’t want to walk away from them –
So now she’s fuckin’ Loretta Lynn? I thought. Who knew Hollywood was doing a reboot of The Coalminer’s Daughter! And that Hillary was angling for the role!
Psst, Hills – it’s kinda ingenuous, to say the least, that America is now “energy independent” considering the fact that while, yes it’s true, the U.S. is now the number one oil producer in the world, it all goes into a global exchange, which we pay to access at the same inflated rates as everyone else.
###
But all the while I was sitting there growing angrier and angrier, I was also trying to figure out just why I was growing so angry. I mean, you know: My life is actually pretty good. You need to have a body of work to win the Nobel Prize after all (which I don’t have), and despite occasional thoughtlessness – and I was so-o-o much worse at their age – my kids are good kids with affection for their eccentric mother.
Really, it was Donald Trump who was making me angry!
By that, I don’t mean that his actions were making me angry. Although I think he’s the lowest form of racist, sexist slime, I find his theatrics quite amusing. I like that he punked reporters by leading them to believe he was hosting a meet and greet only to be confronted by the Bill Clinton sexual assault lineup. I like that he has shattered the Republican Party. I like that he prowled around the diminutive Hillary on stage, stalking her like some sort of demented ghost of Benghazis past. I like that he has reduced so many of my liberal acquaintances to fulminating sputters.
Don’t get me wrong. Trump is mega-creepy. But I’m kind of enjoying the chaos.
No, I mean that Trump has a genuine talent for catalyzing rage.
Almost like a superpower!
Hitler – sorry, Godwin! – had the same thing.
This makes Trump very, very dangerous.
Fortunately, he doesn’t have a chance in hell of winning the election. But I gotta give him this debate.
