Instead of responding in the moment, as a
human being alert to the conversation would do, Hillary goes into her
preparation book and delivers boiler plate. The opening of last night's
debate is a perfect example.
The first question was one of the most
inviting softballs I've ever seen, coming in big and fat and ready to be
knocked out of the park. It framed the essential Trump vulnerability,
exposed dramatically in the preceding two days by the 2005 groping-women
tape. The audience was sure to be heated up. The question came from
a black woman.
QUESTION: Thank you, and good
evening. The last debate could have been rated as MA, mature audiences, per TV
parental guidelines. Knowing that educators assign viewing the presidential
debates as students’ homework, do you feel you’re modeling appropriate and
positive behavior for today’s youth?
CLINTON: Well, thank you. Are you a
teacher? Yes, I think that that’s a very good question, because I’ve heard from
lots of teachers and parents about some of their concerns about some of the
things that are being said and done in this campaign.
And I think it is very important for
us to make clear to our children that our country really is great because we’re
good. And we are going to respect one another, lift each other up. We are going
to be looking for ways to celebrate our diversity, and we are going to try to
reach out to every boy and girl, as well as every adult, to bring them in to
working on behalf of our country.
I have a very positive and optimistic
view about what we can do together. That’s why the slogan of my campaign is
“Stronger Together,” because I think if we work together, if we overcome the divisiveness
that sometimes sets Americans against one another, and instead we make some big
goals — and I’ve set forth some big goals, getting the economy to work for
everyone, not just those at the top, making sure that we have the best
education system from preschool through college and making it affordable, and
so much else.
If we set those goals and we go
together to try to achieve them, there’s nothing in my opinion that America
can’t do. So that’s why I hope that we will come together in this campaign.
Obviously, I’m hoping to earn your vote, I’m hoping to be elected in November,
and I can promise you, I will work with every American.
I want to be the president for all
Americans, regardless of your political beliefs, where you come from, what you
look like, your religion. I want us to heal our country and bring it together
because that’s, I think, the best way for us to get the future that our
children and our grandchildren deserve.
Trump is not so dumb that he doesn't know just what to do with
that:
TRUMP: Well, I actually agree with
that. I agree with everything she said. I began this campaign because I was so
tired of seeing such foolish things happen to our country. This is a great
country. This is a great land. I’ve gotten to know the people of the country
over the last year-and-a-half that I’ve been doing this as a politician. I
cannot believe I’m saying that about myself, but I guess I have been a
politician.
But have you been "modeling appropriate and positive
behavior for today’s youth?"
Still tingling in the audience's ears will be Trump's voice telling TV host Billy Bush that to succeed with women all you have to do, if you're a star like him, is "grab 'em by the pussy." Clinton can present herself as a model of fidelity and
decorum in a spouse. She is way up
there on the heights of American ideals, he is down in the dirty depths.
Not a chance.
That's alertness to the human moment. She's off in the world of well-organized ideas, and has
found, under What to Say if This Subject Comes Up, the one closest to Eternal
Truths for Americans. The way is open for Trump —probably unable to believe his
luck — to join her on the high ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment