Four candidates, two debates, and a hopeless mess

By Christopher Curran
Posted 10/11/16

In the last two weeks, we have witnessed both the vice presidential debate and the second presidential debate. The after effects of these forums were not a clearer understanding of the issues, nor an …

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Four candidates, two debates, and a hopeless mess

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In the last two weeks, we have witnessed both the vice presidential debate and the second presidential debate. The after effects of these forums were not a clearer understanding of the issues, nor an explanation of the intricacies of policy. Instead, we heard an off-note symphony of caustic accusations and respondents’ weak attempts at exculpation.

In comparison with televised debates of the past, for our two highest public offices, these two encounters were shameful in the tenor of discussion and juvenile in the delivery of speech. Ridiculously, the candidates mustered falsely dramatic displays of affectations in an attempt to fight verbal assaults with histrionics.

For the vice presidential debate, in Farmville, Va., Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence sat down with moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News at Longwood University.

A few days later, for the second presidential debate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and real estate tycoon Donald Trump met in a “Town Hall” debate at Washington University in Saint Louis, Mo., with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC News’s Martha Raddatz filling the role of moderators.

Prospective voters sought to find possible answers for the many great challenges facing our nation. Unfortunately, there was none displayed. Kaine spent his precious debate time on the attack at Trump, especially his business history. His competitor, Pence, spent his time disregarding Kaine’s charges, pretending nothing adverse was happening, and using dismissive, incredulous facial expressions.

In their debate, Trump immediately assailed Clinton on virtually everything, but most treacherously on the elicit behavior of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her “enabling” of it.

Both these debates were chock full of mudslinging and summary judgments on the opponent’s character. All the participants in these debates were lessened in stature by their performances. However, the worse result of these forums was the diminishment and devaluation of our political system and the disservice to the electorate.

Right out of the starting gate, the usually passive Kaine acted like a yapping toy dog biting at the heels of Pence. Kaine started with berating Trump’s professed business acumen: “[Trump] built a business career, in the words of his campaign staffer, off the backs of the little guy.” And the Virginia senator steered the dialogue toward immigration: “He called Mexicans rapists and criminals.”

Then angry Timmy posed the question that provoked the notion of a perceived hypocrisy in regard to the politically moral governor defending Trump: “How can Gov. Pence defend the insult driven selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump.”

He continued with surfacing the issue of Trump’s glowing affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin: “You both have said Vladimir Putin is a better leader than President Obama.”

Pence displayed a practiced dismissive countenance while hearing these venomous assertions. He occasionally uttered that Kaine was mistaken, and all with a steady monotone of self-assurance. Never rattled, Pence chose to project an alternate reality where Donald Trump is a noble man and an American success story: “Donald Trump has built a business through hard times and through good times. He brought an extraordinary business acumen. He’s employed tens of thousands of people in this country.”

That misguided claim is in the wake of the newly released “The Making of Donald Trump” by David Cay Johnston, formerly of the New York Times. This work outlines Trump’s long and consistent record, cited by public documents, of cheating vendors, construction sub-contractors, and suppliers out of payments for services and goods when the equation of their legal expenses in pursuit of balances due exceeded the amount owed to them. Trump boasted this as a “winning strategy.” Simply, Trump’s campaign staffers were right and Pence’s defense of Trump’s business decency was erroneous.

Furthermore, as reported in the book, Trump has used the bankruptcy laws six times and has filed for Chapter 11 protection four times. Thus, debt was rescheduled, lessened, discounted, and as a result business partners and associates lost much of their investment in Trump’s endeavors. Knowing this, Kaine continued to impeach his business prowess and Pence continued to proclaim his running mate’s goodness and talent and its supposed applicability to possibly administrating the federal government.

Additionally, Pence was challenged to defend several recent outlandish statements made by Trump, which he simply chalked up to Trump not being a politician but an independent thinker and actor.

Quijano struggled between the cross-carping to actually pose important questions and receive informative answers. She asked about ISIS and Pence of course rightly blamed Obama and Clinton for missteps in the Middle East. Kaine defended the position by citing the fact that Obama has reduced our boot presence from 175,000 to 15,000 and enlisted air power and other local combatants as an alternative to the presence of more American soldiers.

With perseverance, Quijano pushed a question about the astronomical, growing $19 trillion national debt. Pence postulated that stimulating the economy by lowering taxes and increasing the rate of growth from 2 percent to 3.5 percent to 4 percent would naturally pay down the national debt. Kaine responded by uttering a stupid catch phrase: “When Hillary Clinton says you’re hired, Donald Trump will say you’re fired.”

While the ending moments of the VP debate were somewhat substantial in content, the same cannot be said of the second presidential debate.

Setting the stage for the debate was the leaking of video from over a decade ago on the Friday before. The bombshell video from an entertainment news program revealed what anyone who has read at length about Trump’s personal history already knows – he is an objectifying cad who is inclined to view women with utility.

His abusive words to Billy Bush 11 years ago about how he has carte-blanche to manhandle any women he wants to because of his star status was conspicuously repellent to the female voter.

During the debate, he reluctantly apologized to the extent that he said he regretted the remarks. Cooper pressed the issue with the accusation: “That is sexual assault. You bragged that you committed sexual assault.” Trump retorted: “I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was said. That was locker room talk.” He repeated that phrase three times in a vain attempt to exculpate himself, to no avail.

Strangely, in perhaps an attempt to unnerve Hillary, Trump had laced the audience with a trio of ghosts from Bill Clinton’s reckless, adulterous past. Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, and Juanita Broaddrick hung over the Clintons like apparitions from a Shakespeare play. Yet, Hillary was unfazed by their presence.

Also, in the beginning of this “Twilight Zone” debate, the two candidates were introduced and then refused to shake hands, and the event digressed from there. The gravity of issues was overshadowed by trite nonsensical barbs.

Raddatz and Cooper barely kept control of the wild elephant and donkey. The competitors started attacking each other immediately. Trump stated: “She has tremendous hate in her heart … she has tremendous hatred.” He also said: “I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There’s never been anything like it. And we’re going to get a special prosecutor.”

Clinton tried to paint Trump as unhinged. “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” she said.

“Because you’d be in jail,” Trump snidely responded.

Both of these debates have cheated the American public out of vital information so they can make an informed decision with their vote in November. The annoying aggressiveness of Kaine, the surrealistic avoiding of facts related to his running mate by Pence, the mean bullying way of Trump, and the imperiousness of Clinton have all failed the public they seek to serve.

This election is not a soap opera. It is not a game, and the result will in part determine our collective future as a nation. Simply put, these four people are taking the importance of this contest too lightly and indulging in petty foolishness, rendering the election process this year ignoble.

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