Hillary snappiest, but will she be Trumped?
Re: "The moment when Hillary Clinton won", Comment, October 15.
I agree that Hillary won the first Democratic debate, and offer a few observations:
1. The format favoured candidates who look good, are fast on their feet, and can spit out zippy sound-bites at the drop of a hat.
2. Lincoln Chafee, Jim Webb and Martin O’Malley didn’t meet that standard. They are doomed. Chafee looked like Poo Poo, the little dog in the comic strip “Pooch Cafe”. His tie looked as if it had been puked on. If you can’t pick a decent tie, you’re not qualified to be president of the United States. Webb was slow and uninspiring. O’Malley was the best of the three, with a good but obviously prepared sound-bite about Donald Trump being a carnival barker. But he was bland, conventional, and looked like a lawyer.
3. Bernie Sanders was impressive, especially for a 74-year-old, but he struck me as a throwback to the student radicals of the late 1960s. His dream of reforming the US by inspiring a mass movement of outraged citizens is naive. All that will do is generate a lot of noise that will eventually fizzle out. Think Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential campaign.
Sanders seems to be the type of person who, as commander in chief, would use military power only under the most pressing circumstances (think Pearl Harbour). You don’t want Genghis Khan as president, but you don’t want Casper Milquetoast, either. You want a person of balanced judgement, with the wisdom to know when to charge forward and when to hold back, and the guts to do either. Reluctant warriors always lose.
4. Hillary won hands down, but it ain’t over till it’s over. What happens if and when Hillary ever debates The Donald? Will the immovable object meet the irresistible force? Stay tuned, because it’s the greatest show on earth – or at least in North America.
Ye Olde Couch Potato
