* Clinton-Trump: Candidate vs. caricature. Debater vs. performer. It was billed as the “Super Bowl of Politics,” with as many as 100 million viewers expected to tune in. It was the ultimate reality “show,” not a Kennedy-Nixonesque “debate” in a studio. Speaking of, anyone else increasingly nostalgic for that 1960 showdown, when optics meant a youthful-looking John F. Kennedy and a 5 o’clock shadowed Richard Nixon–not bluster, cartoon expressions and barstool interruptions?
The most memorable Trump line: “My strongest asset is my temperament.” It begged a question, one not asked by Clinton. “If your strongest asset is your temperament, is your next-strongest asset your ignorance of all the things a presidential candidate has to know?”
The most memorable Clinton line: “You know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president.” Zing.
Moderator Lester Holt told the audience to hold it down for the sake of decorum. Too bad he couldn’t direct those comments to one candidate in particular.
* Crist-Jolly: Congressman David Jolly comes across as a moderate Republican in an era of partisan crazies. He’s running to keep his congressional seat against the ideology-challenged Charlie Crist in a district that still leans Democratic. His debate performance against Crist could have sealed the deal against his chameleon opponent. But it didn’t. Here’s why.
He was over the top on “Chain Gang Charlie” and those racial Alabama dynamics. He couldn’t just agree to a flat-out ban on assault weapons, but could nuance his answer with “due process” rhetoric and Second Amendment reverence.
And he’s still equivocating about supporting Donald Trump. He said he isn’t right now, but certainly wouldn’t be voting for Hillary Clinton.
Here’s an answer that could have been a game-changer: “First, let me say this about Donald Trump. I don’t support him, and I will not vote for him. Period. The reasons are as obvious as his pathological temperament, his self-serving ethics and his frightening knowledge gaps about America and the rest of the world. There is a reason why his disapproval rating is the highest of any presidential candidate ever.
“Second, for me it’s about country first. That will never change. So, not unlike former President George H.W. Bush or former Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Republicans who have served, I will vote for Hillary Clinton. Not because I like her, not because we agree across the board. It’s because I want to avoid at all costs a Trump presidency that would be a threat to my country, the global economy and strategic geopolitics. This transcends some skewed-priority, perverse definition of party loyalty.
“Like many of you, I’m not exactly pleased with our two viable choices for president, but I’m sure in hell not going to do anything to promote what is not in the best interest of my country. I won’t sit it out. I won’t go third party. I will remain a Republican and vote for America by voting for Hillary Clinton.”