At the time of this writing, we have yet to see the second debate between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. So far, the score is Hillary-1 and Mike Pence-1.
In the most recent contest between Pence and Kaine, Pence was even declared the winner by liberal commentator Chris Matthews. If we were to use a canine metaphor, the vice-presidential debate would have been between a Pit Bull that has slipped his leash and a princely, reserved Great Dane. Of course, the pit bull was Kaine who, in order to get in all of his attacks on Donald Trump, interrupted Pence more than 70 times. Many of those interruptions were couched in exactly the same language that Hillary Clinton had used in the previous debate. The saddest thing about the whole show was how quickly the moderator lost control. In addition to not enforcing the 2-minute segment allotted each speaker, we had a series of overruns, interruptions and failure to answer the question posed.
It was interesting to see that just like moderator Lester Holt, most of the questions that were posed by the female moderator from CBS were much tougher on Pence than on Kaine.
Anyone who has spent any time in the production of political television debates knows that the camera never lies. It was easy to see from his smirking and smug appearance that Kaine was trying desperately to emulate Clinton. From a strictly visual point of view, it was obvious that Pence looked much more presidential than Kaine, if in fact one of them were to succeed their leader into the highest office in the land. It was reminiscent of the famous JFK-Nixon debate, where JFK got the visual win over a nervous, sweaty Nixon.
As for the major candidates, it might be well to paraphrase former Secretary of State Colin Powell when he retorted against Hillary who tried to drag him into the private server scandal. Powell noted that Hillary always tends to screw things up and she does it with hubris.
Probably the best description of Hillary was coined by a local coffee-breaker when he said, “She is definitely a harridan with hubris.”
Adding to Hillary’s woes last week was a statement from the always unpredictable Bill Clinton as he ranted on stage against Obama Care, calling it “the craziest thing he had ever seen.” Most commentators on both sides of the political spectrum said it was the first time a Clinton had ever told the truth. Bill must have been taken to the wood shed shortly after that comment because the next day he tried desperately to walk it back. To his credit, he showed no sign of physical abuse at the hands of his spouse.
President Obama got into the act last week when he gave his Definition of Capitalism. He said that capitalism works best when it is spread around to benefit more people. By that definition, he seems to have allied himself with the type of capitalism that exists in China, Cuba and Venezuela.
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