Baited

by | Sep 27, 2016 | Debates, Editor's Blog | 18 comments

Hillary Clinton’s great line that “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons” was amplified last night. Donald Trump took the bait all night long and proved in front of 100 million viewers that he has little self-restraint. Contrary to his claim last night, he does not have the best temperament.

Clinton stole a page out of Trump’s playbook without managing to look childish. She first lured Trump into a diatribe by describing his economic plan as “trumped up trickle down.” It was Clinton’s version of “Little Marco” or “Lying Ted” or “Crooked Hillary” and Trump responded as expected. He made the debate about himself, not about America. She showed he’s too thin-skinned to move past any slights, not a trait we need in a president.

Clinton also hit him on his taxes and he sure seemed to say that he didn’t pay any. Not only that, he claimed that not paying them made his smart. Does that make the rest of us dumb? Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns should dominate much of the discussion between now and November. He’s certainly hiding something and we deserve to know what.

For Trump supporters, the debate probably didn’t change much. For Clinton supporters, the debate made them more excited. For the few people who are in the middle, especially women, Trump’s performance probably pushed some toward Clinton.

18 Comments

  1. A D Reed

    Is anyone concerned (wink) that Ebrun hasn’t been commenting about Trump’s debate performance? 🙂

    • The Analyst

      I think he went off to blog on wral.com, where you can easily incite the other mouthbreathers, tin foil hat borgs and tea baggers with occasional snide ditties like “Goddam libruls!” “35,000 pieces of evidence!” “all lives matter!” and other rallying cries. This website tends to have too many informed commentators to suffer right wing canards and half-truths. I’ve been a progressive dreamer all my life, hoping that what I thought was easy to see as best for my fellow humans would lead us toward that pragmatic truth, but the reality is, as long as money can own the politicians and prevent them from serving the public, as opposed to “servicing” the public (think of a bull) as they do today, we really can’t get to a place where every soul born has a chance to exercise the core beliefs as espoused in The Declaration. Too bad they weren’t simply repeated word-for-word into The Constitution. For example, I consider LIFE as an acceptance of government’s responsibility for our Health and Welfare, and THE PURSUIT as a chance to be educated and perform a productive fulfilling role in society. Don’t get me started on LIBERTY…

    • Ebrun

      It was BAD! No need to state the obvious. And even worse since the debate. I have contended all along he would lose. But it is still an open question who will carry NC.

  2. J Hewett

    Yippee! Hillary Clinton was well informed, presented many facts and points related to policies, from sustainable energy as part of the economic platform to more respect between police and community while removing for profit prisons, and she acknowledged Reagan’s trickle down policy which many of us never believed would stimulate the economy via lowering taxes for the rich has been a failure, which Trump wants to trump up. He doesn’t need to worry–he doesn’t pay taxes! So is that a lack of patriotism for someone who has made great wealth via America’s economic system and the benefits taxes provide to our community and even those who profit from it? Hillary Clinton was prepared, did her homework and remained poised and calm throughout the debate. Trump couldn’t even follow debate rules to allow 2 minutes for a speaker and then the other speaker’s response.

  3. Jesse

    My ex-husband was a skilled poker & bridge player. With Mr. Trump’s all too expressive facial changes, he would be a sucker in a card game. I wouldn’t trust him one second with difficult negotiations in international affairs. His tells have tells.

  4. Jay Ligon

    Hillary tossed bait at the Donald like he was a trained seal. He took every bite.
    The lesson the nation should learn from the debate is that there is no optimal mixture of cocaine and lies which can measure up to preparation and scholarship.

    • Troy

      The easiest lessons are often the hardest learned. There’s no other way to explain the virtual tie that currently exists between them.

  5. Mr David B Scott

    After this debate, if you are still Undecided, you are either a “Low Information Voter” or an Ignoramus, but I repeat myself.

    • Christopher Lizak

      What about one-issue “world peace” foreign policy people?

      You have an internationalist who favors frequent intervention and keeping Russia and China “in their place” by any means necessary, including continued expansion of “defensive” NATO to the borders of Russia, vs. a candidate who wants normal peaceful relations with Russia and China while preserving national sovereignty, and an end to reckless “smash and grab” pottery-barn adventurism.

      The debate didn’t seem to speak to any of that. So would these “world peace” guys be considered “low information” or “ignoramuses” for remaining undecided?

      • Jay Ligon

        When you say “smash and grab” are you talking about grabbing all the oil we can from Iraq as we escape?

        You may be too young to remember when the world was divided into two camps – those who favored democratic institutions and those to favored Soviet Totalitarian Communist adventurism. Russia took nations hostage, bled them dry, polluted their homeland, and held the world at bay with the second largest nuclear arsenal in the world. There was no such thing as human rights.

        You probably were not born when Russia placed nuclear weapons in Cuba where they were locked and loaded and aimed at us. The world stood still while Russia decided whether or not to pull the trigger 90 miles from Florida. They chose to return their missiles to Russia, and the whole world was relieved.

        Russia has not been peaceful. You were alive two years ago when Russia began a bloody campaign in Ukraine to capture territory that did not belong to Russia. They used snipers to cover the streets of Kiev with the blood of unarmed civilians. Putin has been as cavalier about the use of nukes his pal, wanna-be dictator Donald Trump. The circle around Russia became tighter when all those former Soviet client states were finally freed, allowed to adopt Parliamentary government and allowed to grow their economies through free markets. They chose to join NATO to get protection from Russian aggression. Russia is run by criminals, thieves and former KGB officials who grabbed everything they could steal when Communism collapsed. It is the largest organized criminal enterprise in the world. They have not been peaceful even this year with cyber attacks on our government. They support the government in Syria which was essentially reduced the nation to rubble and murdered hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians.

        We can do peace. Russia is not a peaceful place, and their government is busy killing people who want peace.

        Vigilance is the price of freedom. You would sell out the nation so that Trump can paint his name in gold on a hotel in Moscow. I don’t think so.

        • A D Reed

          Bravo, Jay Ligon.

          I am so tired of “No, nothing” know-nothings like Mr. Lizak who disdain the proper application of diplomacy to negotiate with countries who are our rivals rather than our allies. Good diplomacy can turn rivals, or even enemies, into allies, as the Obama Administration has striven to do with Eastern Europe, Cuba, and the nations of Southeast Asia. It’s very possible that in time Iran — one of the most ancient nations and peoples in the world, along with China and Egypt — will be as much an ally as Saudi Arabia.

          It is not “frequent interventions to keep people in their place,” but constant vigilance and interaction and negotiation that keeps the world safe. After a century of wars in which hundreds of millions of people died, the 21st has been quite peaceful, and would have been quite prosperous were it not for the reckless adventurism and fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration and its ideological allies in Congress. Thank god it’s getting prosperous again thanks to the steady leadership and unending patience of the Obama Administration.

          Having a knowledgeable, experienced, steady hand controlling the levers of power is the only way to keep us safe. A libertarian fool like Gary Johnson, whose fundamental principal is “every man for himself,” is no better than a plain old fool like Donald Trump, whose fundamental principal is every man for me, and why can’t we use nuclear weapons if we have them.

          Nor is wacko Jill Stein competent to run a city council, much less a nation. She — a doctor no less — believes in the discredited scam about vaccines and autism, and imagines that we can have “world peace” by wishing it were so. As, apparently, does Mr. Lizak.

          If you value the United States, if you value freedom and Constitutional government, if you value your own safety, security, and future (and that of future generations), you really owe it to yourself and the rest of humanity to vote for Secretary Clinton for President.

          • Christopher Lizak

            I was a student of Soviet Studies under Prof. Joe Mastro during the Glasnost exchanges.

            Are you suggesting that threatening nations with weapons of mass destruction, as we have with Iran, is “good diplomacy”?

            That’s not what we called it when Stalin was doing it. Yet when the Great and Powerful USA does it, it must, by definition, be “good”. Right?

            So, I’ll bite. What did the coup d’etat in Nicaragua do to make the world a safer place? Or the destruction of Libya?

            “Peace through superior firepower” is one thing. The systematic destruction of entire societies, targeted specifically because they exist outside of the Central Bank World Structure, is quite a different thing.

            All I’m hearing from you violent authoritarians is: “Vote for Clinton and nobody gets hurt”.

            Real motivating.

        • Christopher Lizak

          You guys are pretty funny. And pretty ignorant. Stalin may reflect what you say, but no Soviet leader since then has. You don’t appear to have any knowledge at all regarding the Ukraine and the neo-Nazis who toppled the legitimately elected government. Or that those murderous snipers were with Maidan. Always remember and never forget, the side that wants a full and fair investigation is to be trusted over the side that destroys evidence as fast as it can.

          Actually, I was a student of Soviet Studies under Prof. Joe Mastro, who participated in the Glasnost exchanges during Gorbachev’s detente, during the late stages of the Cold War. I learned a tremendous amount about Russia and the Soviet Union that you never heard or saw in the USSA media. Academics know the truth, but the Pentagon and the major parties make sure that doesn’t get on TV.

          One of the most important things he taught us was that there was very, very, VERY little difference between the US and the USSR, and what little difference that existed was rapidly diminishing as the USSR became Russia plus the Republics.

          Never forget that the Russia fully cooperated with the Glasnost accords, and the US has violated them on nearly every single point – most notably with the expansion of the “defensive” alliance of NATO. Since the 1990’s there can be no doubt that the US is the Evil Empire, and Russia has made moves to protect itself with defensive alliances – the exact opposite scenario from the Stalinist division of the world into spheres of influence.

          The thieves that robbed Russia were driven out (and some assassinated) by Putin. That’s one of the reasons he’s so popular.

          And vigilance gives way to paranoia when it is fed only ignorance. You can’t believe everything the TV tells you. You have to engage in critical thinking and see the conflicts of interest that exist in all sources of information, if you want anything even approximating the truth.

          • Jay Ligon

            I don’t mean to nitpick but Premier Nikita Khrushchev followed Stalin, and he sent missiles to Cuba and pointed them at the U.S. He brought the world to within moments of thermonuclear holocaust. So, he wasn’t really as peace-loving as you might have been led to believe by your Russian studies.

          • Troy

            Yuri Andropov was another. But he didn’t last long.

            Felix Dzerzhinsky. Head of the old NKVD. A bust of Iron Felix used to sit outsie KGB headquarters until the collapse of the USSR and then it mysteriously disappeared. Since Putin came to power, that bust has somehow managed to find it’s way back to its same place of prominence. And Putin was former KGB.

            Now what does that tell you? Well, it tells me that those totalitarian ideals fostered by the old ways is on the rise. People once heralded for the unbending dedication to Leninist doctrine and Stalinist purges is growing by the day. Why idolize a man that was responsible for wholesale persecution again?

          • A D Reed

            Bwaaaaahahahahaha!

            My mom was the interpreter for Reagan’s aide’s during the Walk in the Woods. A someone of Russian heritage myself who also studied world history at Columbia, I’m very aware of the history of Russia, the Ukraine, and the entire Soviet bloc that was created beginning at the end of World War I.

            Nobody with an ounce of knowledge believes that Putin drove out “the thieves” that robbed Russia and that that made him popular. He instead sold the Soviet state’s monopolies to his cronies from the KGB, and those who didn’t do his bidding were driven out, prosecuted, persecuted, and assassinated in favor of other cronies who would do his bidding.

            The rest of the post is so benighted that I have to wonder whether the writer’s knowledge of reality is grounded in anything other than conspiracy websites. As the grandson of Russian emigres, my first-hand knowledge of the Soviet Union — both from family papers and lore, and from my mom’s academic and State Department records — shows that, indeed, there were and are VAST differences between the US and the USSR, and always have been. While Gorbachev did what he could during an era when the rather dim-witted, starry-eyed Reagan was president, he was pushed out in the same way previous Soviet leaders had been since the 1940s — rarely by assassination anymore, as had been the practice in the ’20s and ’30s, but by quiet in-house coups.

            Putin is a czar. Not even Cheney at his worst, or Reagan at his most feeble, or Obama or Clinton or Bush pere or fils, had the power and ruthlessness of Putin. There has not been a free election in Russia since 1999, and while ours have been tainted by gerrymandering, voter suppression, and Supreme Court interference, they have pitted legitimate candidates against on another and there has always been a peaceful transfer of power.

            Ukraine has its own separate history of proto-fascism and anti-semitism, but it has also long been a divided society, east v. west and East v. West. It struggled through the 1990s after the Soviet collapse in ’91, and I visited as a private citizen in ’97, when it was trying mightily to reestablish its legitimacy and its center as an independent nation (as Poland had done much more successfully). It was hopeful and determined — but as soon as Putin’s allies came to power — through an open election process in which many were dissatisfied and disgruntled by the slow progress of progressive democracy — they started murdering their opponents, too, and became a crooked mini-oligarchy modeled on Moscow. They were Saruman’s Orthanc under the eye of Putin’s Mordor.

            Don’t tell me there’s no difference between my US with a 240-year history of democracy — rocky, unfair, unequal, and imperfect, but a model for the world for generations — and the land that imprisoned my grandparents for daring to ask for free elections in 1911, and exiled them in 1912, and is today murdering their intellectual and spiritual descendants.

            I neither know nor care who Joe Mastro is or was, or what college he taught you at, but reality is not within the realm of what you learned.

          • Fetzer Mills Jr

            You don’t know a whole lot about Putin or Putin’s Russia. Russia is Russia. It was totalitarian and imperialistic under the Romanovs. It was under the Soviets and it is under Putin. They have never wished the US well nor has their leadership wished their own citizenry well. Saying that Putin eliminated organized crime in Russia is an outright falsehood. The Russian government, organized crime and the SVR/FSB and GRU are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. I wouldn’t be surprised if Boris Epshteyn were picked up for racketeering and charges related to National Security within the next year, if he doesn’t flee back to Russia before. Speaking of Nazis, Putin’s anti-gay policies, anti-ethnic minority policies, territorial acquisitiveness and shuttering of independent journalistic organizations and state sanctioned murder of journalists are reminiscent of the Nazis. Different melody, same song.

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