US Election Debate: Clinton Wins: Wins What?

There is general agreement among pundits, commentators and early polls that Clinton won the first Presidential Debate. The problem for her is that winning the debate no longer offers the key to the White House.  That is because this is an election like no other and the pundits have been wrong on every prediction and analysis thus far. There is just too big a mass of voters out there who are not looking for somebody to win debates; they want a champion who can turn their lives around. They don’t want a clever politician. They want a rough, tough, fighter who will take on vested interests and the political establishment on their behalf and cut them a better deal.

This means, as we saw in the primaries, poor debating skills do not damage Trump, but they do damage his opponents. So Trump is in a perverse way debate proof. Yet he is the one drawing in the audience. A hundred million people or whatever the tune in figure was, did not switch on to watch Hilary. It was Trump they wanted to see. What would he do? Who would he insult? What gaffes would he commit? But on the other hand, does he not talk sense? Is he not saying what deep inside they feel? That is why Hilary Clinton may win all the debates and lose the Presidency. If she becomes President she will have the satisfaction of knowing she has beaten perhaps the most dangerous opponent ever. Maybe not. Maybe he is all noise and cannot win anyway. Or maybe she has lost already. Only a fool can tell.

That is what makes the election so interesting.

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