Jonah Goldberg:
This Monday we will see Hillary Clinton battle Donald Trump in their first presidential debate.
It’s difficult to capture the otherworldliness of it all. Most of the commentary centers around Trump — and for good reason. He’s the X factor. Some see him as a brilliant, media-savvy disruptor, shaking the foundation of the political establishment. Others see him as a Rodney Dangerfield-esque character (with a touch of Peter Sellers’s Chauncey Gardner) who managed to bluff his way onto the national stage, demanding respect. And that barely scratches the surface. Between friends and foes the descriptions get more ridiculous by the hour. He’s Cincinnatus, he’s Hitler, he’s Reagan, he’s “orange Muppet Hitler” (in the words of some celebrities), he’s George Washington, he’s some other kind of Hitler. And so on.
But it’s worth remembering that Clinton, in her own excruciatingly dull, grating, and pedantic way, has long been a larger-than-life figure, too. It may not seem like it given that she often sounds like a luncheon speaker at a conference of insurance-+industry actuaries. But if you were a student of the lady, you’d know that the flinty demeanor is widely believed to be a tightly managed veneer, hiding a thoroughly ideological, somewhat paranoid, and testy woman.
One needn’t credit all of the wild rumors and allegations about lamp throwing, hurled expletives, and petty revenge-seeking to still believe that there’s more to Clinton than the relentless stream of clichés and platitudes that she spouts with metronomic monotony.
She clearly has the ability to elicit loyalty from very powerful people (and to bequeath power to very loyal people) without having to make them sign nondisclosure agreements the way her opponent does. That alone suggests there’s something more to her than meets the eye. Her supporters, in fact, insist that’s the case: that the real Hillary is like a verdant oasis of wit and charm hidden in the vast desert of her public persona. To borrow a phrase from The Who, the Hillary we see is an eminence front, a put-on.
Intriguingly, this is almost the mirror version of what many of Trump’s biggest fans say about him, except they claim that the bluster and bullying, the stunted, ill-fitted vocabulary and seemingly bone-dry reservoir of policy expertise is what you might call an everyman front.
He may talk like a Joe Sixpack working one of his constructions sites, but underneath — allegedly — is one of the most clever and shrewd businessmen ever to walk the earth, playing chess ten moves ahead.
The political consultants no doubt have a long to-do list for each of them. Clinton has almost certainly committed to memory a whole catalog of necessary micro-panders to specific constituencies and demographics (left-handed 19-year-old Asian-American diabetic English majors attending community college, etc.). And it seems a sure bet that Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has endeavored to impress upon her candidate the importance of being on his best behavior.
So will there be the usilal mobs of liberal screwballs be there to harass trump shout through bull horns and burn american flags while behaving like mob of pavment apes
Why does it take three weeks of intense preparation for the “most qualified person” ever to get ready for a debate?
Yesterday there was a report involving Trump’s debate prep.
He STOOD for 5 hours in over two total back-to-back mock debates.
He had no problem with dealing with the ”her” his team put together.
Apparently he is going to allow her to speak all she wants.
Most Americans disagree with most of her expressed points of view.
OTOH, many Americans plan to watch just to see if Hillary can stay upright for the entire 90 minutes.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: I’m still waiting for Ajay to supply his list of achievements of Hillary. So far he hasn’t been able to come up with No. 1.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): I’ve noticed that aside from AJ (who is content to throw lies out to see what reaction he/she can get, then run away from the reaction) most of our liberal friends have vacated the premises. Perhaps it is becoming far too difficult to defend the liberal position nowadays.
I’m still waiting for AJ to answer the very first question I ever asked him/her.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
him/her ? it?
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): @Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables):
It’s beyond reasoning that 2 resident trolls would actually sit and wait day after day, hour after hour for me to answer some rhetoric that I’ve already called them out on.
For them to actually admit to it, now that’s just beyond stupid.
Perhaps the reason you’re losing interest amoung folks like myself is that you say incredibly stupid things and then stand by that idiocy regardless of facts. Kinda like Obama brought us the entire $20 trillion debt or that there isn’t even an argument of Trumps racism or, here’s a good one, that Trump has never used the the f word.
Maybe it’s that folks like myself can get a more mature, productive, and intelligent conversation from a trash can than we can with the likes of the FA fan club.
Update- one of the above links was meant to respond to the other admitted deplorable but realistically, is there even a difference?
@Ajay42302: Anyone that expects an answer from the likes of YOU is certainly a time waster. For, as you have proven without variation, you HAVE no answers. You don’t even understand the question.
For instance, I myself have asked you for but ONE example of Trump’s racism. You don’t have one; if you did, you would have provided it. Am I waiting around for an answer? No, no purpose to that… you are afraid to. I guess you think that if you don’t answer, we won’t surmise you have none. You might also think that stupid, “Well, if I have to tell you….” ignorance fools someone. It doesn’t.
No, AJ, no one thinks you have an answer. No one. Cowardly liars that support losers never have answers. You never have answers.
@Ajay42302:
I guess that’s the latest from your ‘Cut and Paster” supplier.
Okay, repeat after me. A B C D
Not only can he not provide one example of Trump’s ‘racism’, he also can’t list one single accomplishment of Hillary (knocking off Vince is not one)
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
“I’m still waiting for AJ to answer the very first question I ever ask him/her.”
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
“Am I waiting around for an answer? No.”
It’s obvious why you make such an excellent Trump licker.
@Ajay42302: Have you ever answered the question? No.
No wonder you are such a Clintonista servant; you are an ill-informed, sniveling liberal coward
This Ajay guy is hilarious.
Definitely NOT a paid troll…just a nut.
I’d stop feeding him any attention, though. He’s just like a chihuahua under the table, begging for crumbs with an incessant “yap yap”…
Has anyone else seen Hillary’s letter to a victim-status girl who (by her own admission) is a slut and therefore contracted herpes?
Hillary buys into the female’s delusion that it wasn’t her fault, and that no one has any right to be aghast at the idea of having sex with her.
But D. C. MCALLISTER of PJ Media shreds them both.
And, rightly so.
Why do I have to buy into the delusions of immoral individuals who want to deny reality?
Why does Hillary require this?
She (Ella Dawson) spreads misinformation (such as herpes being harmless) on her blog.
Hillary agrees with her.
The medical profession …… not so much.
And Hillary agrees with her, over the Mayo Clinic!
Yeah, right.
Stop ”stigmatizing” those who have herpes!