Tag: presidential debates

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Funny: Stephen Colbert’s Take On The Presidential Debate

Because we can’t be serious ALL the time.

Stephen Colbert of The Late Show offers HIS recap of the first presidential debate.

He pretty much gets it all in here: the “Trump sniffle,” the “women are pigs” thing, Trump’s favorite word, “no.”

From Entertainment Weekly:

During his monologue on Monday’s live edition of The Late Show, Colbert called out Trump’s sniffles, joking that Trump “sounded like he was fighting off a cold with cocaine.”

After playing a montage of Trump sniffling, Colbert added, “He sounded like the coked-up best man in the bathroom at a wedding. ‘You guys, I got it, I know how we can fix the entire economy. Let’s buy a boat.’”

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Recapping The First 2016 Presidential Debate

Thoughts on the first presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, which pretty much went like this:

• First, Clinton was decided the winner of the debate almost universally. Both CNN and PPP‘s separate polls taken after the event showed Clinton with a decisive win for the night.

• Most pundits believe Trump stayed on balance for the first 20-25 minutes, and then his defensive nature kicked in and he became “the Donald” we all expected to show up. It became difficult for him to resist interrupting Clinton on almost every answer, while Clinton wisely stood silent during his own responses.

• According to Facebook, the “top social moment” of the debate was when Trump said his strongest asset is his “temperament.” The comment was met by laughs in the debate hall and snarky replies on social media.

• Twitter exploded when Trump denied ever saying that global warming was a hoax “created by and for the Chinese.” Instantly, the Twitterverse retweeted his 2012 tweet which stated exactly that.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/265895292191248385

• Often, Trump’s own ad-libs contributed to his own detriment. When Clinton brought up Trump saying the 2008 Wall Street collapse and the job losses that followed would be good for his investments, Trump replied, “That’s called business by the way.” When the former secretary of state stated that Trump is dangerous for off-hand threats like saying he would blow Iranians out of the water for taunting U.S. sailors, Trump replied, “That would not start a war.” It all became a bit like a petulant 10 year old.

And then there was this during a question about Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns:

Clinton: For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns. You can go and see nearly, I think, 39, 40 years of our tax returns, but everyone has done it. We know the IRS has made clear there is no prohibition on releasing it when you’re under audit.

So you’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be.

Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of yearswhen he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax

Trump: That makes me smart.

Clinton: So if he’s paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he’s not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he’s trying to hide.

So, what does that make the rest of the country’s tax payers who DO pay for military, veteran’s care, roads and bridges and school? Are we chumps? I think that comment was a strong example of some of the self-inflicted wounds Trump suffered throughout the debate.

• Most pundits point to an exchange about a comment Trump had made about Clinton not looking “presidential.” Trump attempted to pivot to saying he spoke about her “stamina” (he’s actually commented on both). But Hillary stayed on topic, recalling many of the comments Trump has made about women over the years, including a story about a former Miss Universe that Trump took to calling “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”

Trump called in to Fox and Friends this morning to tell his side of the “Miss Universe” story. “I know that person. That person was a Miss Universe person. And she was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst, she was impossible,” he said. “She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem. We had a real problem. Not only that, her attitude.”

• Super-stats guy Nate Silver believes that Clinton will see something of a small bounce coming out of this first head=to-head encounter.

The next debate will take place on October 4th at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., between Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence.

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How Did Lester Holt Do As Moderator Of The 1st Presidential Debate?

The experts weigh in on how NBC News’ Lester Holt did as moderator of the first presidential debate:

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Who Won The 1st Presidential Debate?

I won’t go into all the details right here – tomorrow is another day – but I will leave you with this.

According to the CNN/ORC poll, Hillary Clinton won the first presidential debate by 35 points.

Also from Public Policy Polling:

PPP notes that among young voters, who Clinton has under performed with, 63% think she won the debate to only 24% for Trump.

I watched the full debate, and as most political teams are acknowledging, Hillary did very well. Preparation paid off.

Trump, on the other hand, was exactly who we might have expected to show up.

Suffice to say, it was a good night for the good guys.

More later.

More wine 🙂

For historical context, let’s look back at the first 2012 presidential debate:

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First Presidential Debate Tonight 9PM ET/6PM PT

Here we go, kids.

The first face to face between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump in their first presidential debate promises one of the biggest audiences in television history.

Tonight at 9PM ET/6PM PT on just about any news channel you can imagine (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS and more).

You can watch on TV or below at the CNN live feed:

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Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads Donald Trump By +5 Heading Into First Debate

From NBC News:

Just hours ahead of the first 2016 presidential debate, Hillary Clinton continues to lead Donald Trump by 5 points, 45 percent to 40 percent, unchanged from last week, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll.

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson trails behind with 10 percent support, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein has 3 percent support.

In a two-way match-up without the third-party candidates, Clinton has a 7-point advantage over Trump, 51 percent to 44 percent. The margin is up from 5 points last week among likely voters.

Pundits have posited today that typically the candidate who leads going into the first presidential debate tends to win the election.

Not sure how useful that info is in this topsy-turvy election year, but there you go.

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Trump Campaign: Gennifer Flowers “Has Not Been Invited By The Campaign” To 1st Debate

After some of the silliest back and back I’ve yet to see in this audacious campaign cycle, word comes from Donald Trump’s campaign manager that “scandal girl” Gennifer Flowers (dumb spelling) will NOT be attending the first presidential debate tomorrow night.

As many may know, the issue began earlier this week when billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted that he had been invited by the Hillary Clinton campaign to sit in the front row of the debate Monday night at Hofstra University, referring to the event as “the humbling at Hofstra.”

Then, Donald Trump tweeted a “threat” that he might just invite “Jennifer Flowers” (there’s that troublesome spelling issue again).

That was followed by Flowers herself (who can at least spell her dumb first name):

By the way, what’s with the “porn pink” fur coat?

Now, two issues here:

One, it’s just tacky that Flowers would try and jump in the limelight again after being a mistress to a married man almost 30 years ago. I mean, wtf?

Second, the analogy of Flowers to Cuban makes no sense. If Cuban is somehow a “threat” to Trump as another “billionaire,” then instead of Flowers, shouldn’t Trump be looking for a former secretary of state that’s critical of Clinton? Oh, I forgot, there isn’t one.

In any case, today Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told ABC News George Stephanopoulos that Flowers “has not been invited by the campaign.”

Conway said the reason for the threat was “to remind people he’s a great counterpuncher.”

Who clearly has little understanding of analogies.

So, perhaps that ends this silly, silly business.

No Flowers for you, debate audience.

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Green Party’s Jill Stein To Protest Outside 1st Presidential Debate

Green Party candidate Jill Stein

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who did not poll high enough to qualify for the first presidential debate this coming Monday at Hofstra University, says she plans to participate “live in the debate on social media.”

Additionally, Stein will take part in a “Let Jill Debate” protest in front of Hofstra University before the debate commences, as well as a “People’s Debate.”

The commission which plans and organizes presidential debate had set a threshold of an average of 15% polling across five major national polls (ABC-Washington Post, CBS-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corporation, Fox News, and NBC-Wall Street Journal) to qualify for the first debate.

Stein is currently averaging 2.8% nationally according to Real Clear Politics.

Fellow third-party candidate Libertarian Gary Johnson also failed to make the stage as his polling average is currently 8.5%.

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RNC Spokesmans Begins The Game Of “Low Expectations” For Trump In Presidential Debates

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer is first out of the gate in setting the bar low for Donald Trump for the upcoming presidential debate.

Spicer all but says Trump will be a winner just by surviving the debate.

Via press release:

“Clinton is a career politician who has spent years sharpening her debate reflexes and beefing up on public policy. Donald Trump is new to the format.

“Aside from primary debates (which have lower levels of attention on them and many more participants) Trump’s lack for formal, political, one-on-one debate experience gives Clinton a significant advantage.

“This view is informed in large part due to Clinton’s adroit performances in past debates. Clinton’s been at it since she was on the debate team in high school, and she has shined on some of the biggest stages before.

“She knows how to debate and by all accounts she is a methodical and intense consumer of information in her preparations beforehand.”

It’s a common strategy for candidates and their surrogates to downplay their perceived strengths. and acknowledge their opponent’s skills ahead of presidential debates. This tactic leaves the candidate open to appear as if they exceeded expectations after the debate.