After Donald Trump was trounced, humiliated and sent home with his tail between his legs in the first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, what did he do the following day? He was in Florida campaigning and, if you can believe it, he told his supporters that every poll taken after the debate “showed me as the clear winner.”
That is absolutely hilarious: the facts are that after the debate a special CNN instant poll concluded that Clinton had an 18 to 2 winning advantage. Frank Luntz, the highly respected Republican strategist and pollster, hosted a live post-debate focus group whose members voted 17 to 3 in favor of Clinton. Other national polls indicated that Trump went down in flames.
So it’s quite apparent that Trump has lapsed into a state of delusion, completely out of touch with reality. This pathetic excuse for a presidential aspirant looked like some minor leaguer who can’t hit, can’t pitch, can’t catch and can’t run the bases; and yet is trying to make the case that he belongs in the major leagues.
Clinton made him look like a rank amateur but she didn’t destroy him; he destroyed himself because almost everything that came out of his mouth was either a lie or a clever misstatement of the facts. This debate was both painful and delightful to watch as I found myself at times “deploring” his opinions and then laughing so hard at what he said that my eyes were filled with tears and I couldn’t see.
We kept hearing that prior to the debate he was being coached to act presidentially, to remain calm and collected and under control, to show people that he truly was ready for entry into the Oval Office. Well that lasted for about 10 minutes and then he lost control and returned to the Trump that we all know, a huge blowhard that can’t control his temper and emotions.
After doing a lot of sniffling that seemed to indicate that he might have a cold or the flu, or even pneumonia, he then stated that Clinton lacked stamina. Certainly a candidate’s state of health is very important. However, so is the mental health of someone running for high office. Sounds like it’s high time for the media to raise some serious questions about that aspect of health and, especially, relative to Trump.
Let’s review just a few statements he made to show how he either lied or is totally ignorant of world affairs. He indicated that ISIS was created after Hillary and President Obama removed all troops from Iraq when, instead, they should have kept a large contingent of them in that country to maintain a strong presence and protect U.S. interests. He stated that they failed to do that and, thereafter, ISIS was created and established control; now these terrorists are present across the Middle East and North Africa, creating havoc and destruction.
Anyone who has paid attention knows that Clinton and Obama had no real say in keeping U.S. troops in Iraq because G.W. Bush had negotiated a SOFA, a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraq government that called for the removal of all U.S. troops from that country. The reason that Bush did that was because he wanted our troops to have total immunity from prosecution if they were charged with violating Iraqi laws. The government of Iraq said absolutely not and so Bush signed the SOFA.
Then we heard Trump criticize Clinton and Mr. Obama for planning and implementing the U.S. agreement with Iran which was designed to prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon; he said it was a horrible agreement, which could not be further from the truth. How can a foreign affairs lightweight like Trump think he can make a judgement about such a very complex agreement? It’s way over his head.
And then he went even further saying she and Obama had caved in to Iran and given it $400 million as a ransom payment to free 4 American hostages. He called this a “Scandal.” This political dolt was either lying or deliberately misstating the facts. The $400 million was the money which had been used to pay for the purchase of military equipment that the U.S. was to furnish to Iran in 1979. That agreement was never concluded because of the overthrow of the Iranian government, the subsequent taking of American hostages, and the severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
That money has been impounded ever since then; and, yes, it is true that in the case of freeing the 4 U.S. hostages it was part of the bargaining process. The U.S. government returned that $400 million plus substantial interest to Iran and the hostages were freed. So again, here we have Trump acting as the master of the art of distortion.
These “trumped” up charges against Clinton and Obama by Trump are one of the reasons why Trump’s followers, who believe his every word, can be compared to the little children who followed the Pied Piper and went over the cliff. He tells these gross lies and in their ignorance his loyal supporters blindly follow him. They don’t have the capacity to think deeply about what he says and raise questions about its validity.
Now, I don’t think Clinton used the best term to describe Trump’s supporters when she called them deplorable. To me a much more accurate depiction of those who strongly embrace this sociopath would be to say that they are “cut out of the same cloth.”
Have we in America descended to such a low level that we might actually allow a candidate with so many obvious emotional hang-ups to possess the tremendous power that comes with the U.S. presidency? How can so many millions of Americans not see that this guy is like a time bomb ready to explode at any time, whenever someone dares to confront or criticize him?
The journalistically-challenged media, no matter what he says, how insulting he is and how terrible he comes across as a presidential candidate, does not dare to say what it most certainly should; that a person who is so very emotional and easily angered cannot and must not be our next president; and become the Commander-In-Chief of our powerful military. That would take journalistic integrity which most all of these corporate-controlled news organizations simply don’t possess.
Talk about a nation and its people arriving at a fork in the road at which they must decide which direction to take. If a significant portion of the American electorate doesn’t wake up to the danger that this country faces in the form of Trump, and they follow this Pied Piper of twisted politics, they will create a veritable nightmare for all Americans and, quite probably, the entire world.
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