Didn’t see or hear the debate
myself – and as usual it’s difficult to find an opinion that isn’t to some
degree slanted in a favored direction – so all I can give is an overall
impression left by the reviews I have read – the upshot being Trump did not do
well but possibly did just enough to
live another day – one would describe that as the absolute bare minimum mark he
needed to hit.
To ‘win’ all he had to do was
demonstrate a somewhat even temperament – jury appears to be out on that one
but sounds like a fail – show some modest grasp of policy details – again,
not good it appears – and hit at Hillary’s glaring weakness, trust – again,
doesn’t sound like he managed that either. Hillary is a target rich environment
when it comes to her supposed accomplishments and trust – that he couldn’t
score any winners would suggest his debate prep was seriously lacking. If you
can’t even manage enough focus to prep for a fucking debate you’re not gonna be
a very good president and might possibly be a dangerous one – although, Obama’s
guilty of both those things and his minions seem convinced he’s a genius.
So where does that leave me?
Pretty much where I’ve been for a long time now – there can be no possible good
outcome to this election aside from the absurdist one of Trump winning and then
handing off his duties to Pence. Trying to pick the ‘least bad option’ is
nearly impossible since you’re left relying entirely on hypotheticals. It gets
harder and harder to not view the election of Obama as the first step in a very
bad journey for the country towards what could prove an existential crisis. The
left has lost its mind and the right is just lost period. Possibly not since
the civil war has the country been so in need of a truly great president – and
there isn’t one even remotely in sight. We got lucky with Lincoln, lucky with
FDR [although some with good cause might argue that] and lucky I’d say with
Reagan – at pivotal moments the right person came to the fore.
‘Winning’ at history isn’t
just about having laudable attributes as a culture and making good decisions –
luck plays a part – and when it abandons you, watch out. One can argue that
Rome’s decline stemmed from a failure to find leaders adequate to the
challenges faced – often this failure was abject in nature. Has America entered
the abject fail stage of its history? Kinda starting to feel that way.
