If you were among the 80 million or so people who could stomach Monday’s U.S. presidential debate – the ultimate in reality TV – we salute you.
The consensus appears to be that Clinton was the clear winner. Trump landed a few points about how America’s industrial workers have paid the price of international trade deals, but then spent most of the remaining 90 minutes braying incoherently.
Poli-sci eggheads tell us debate winners typically enjoy a bump on the polls afterwards. But this election stopped being typical when the Republicans nominated the malignant id of Ronald McDonald to be their would-be commander in chief.
Debates, rather than being exchanges of wits and a chance to parse policy and vision in detail, are really now more opportunities for the candidates to sell themselves to subsets of voters.
Clinton is targeting the centre and left as well as those on the right not wanting to hand the keys over to a madman. Trump’s base is a culture that is hooked on infotainment and people who conflate belligerence with speaking from a position of strength or rightness.
Trump’s utter reliance on platitudes, fear mongering and mistruths won’t make a lick of difference to his supporters, because, if those things mattered to them, he never would have won the nomination in the first place.
Despite the massive gulf of qualifications between the two, the race remains tight, even in some battleground states.
The outcome on Nov. 8 won’t be decided by pundits, editorial writers or even sane people. It will be decided by the people who show up.
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