HILLARY PUTS TRUMP ON DEFENSIVE

HILLARY PUTS TRUMP ON DEFENSIVE

 

Democrat Hillary Clinton, the seasoned politico and consummate debater that she is, appeared to dominate the opening US presidential debate on Monday night, putting Republican Donald Trump on the defensive as the two slugged it out on issues ranging from jobs and trade to racism and sexism, and on who has the “temperament” and “stamina” for the top job.

 After a fairly sound start by projecting himself as an anti-establishment  candidate of change against someone who has occupied the political spotlight for nearly three decades, Trump steadily lost his way as Clinton shrewdly baited him on some of his business practices and his refusal to release tax records.

While a well-prepared Clinton found a way to insert issues to embarrass Trump over some of his past conduct, the billionaire real-estate mogul failed to capitalise on opportunities that came his way. He not only let her get away easily on her controversial email saga, but failed to even bring up the Clinton Foundation issue, after having railed against it at numerous campaign rallies.

For all of Clinton’s command, however, snap polls were divided on who won the debate at New York’s Hofstra University that was watched by some 100 million viewers across the US and abroad. If a CNN-ORC poll called it a runaway victory for Clinton (62 per cent to 27 per cent), a Time magazine online poll in which 1.54 million people voted found Trump to be the winner (54 per cent to 46 per cent). Surprisingly, several other online polls also called Trump the winner. 

Trump began with his aggressive message of bringing back jobs that have moved overseas by cutting taxes and regulations to enthuse American companies to stay put, but Clinton, faced with the tag of “status quo candidate”, shifted the focus to her opponent’s past record on racial discrimination over employing African-Americans and sexist slurs against women he disagreed with, calling them “pigs, slobs and dogs”.

Clinton also prominently raised Trump’s infamous “birther” issue, questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and keeping the matter alive till recently,

even though Obama had produced his birth certificate back in 2011.

“He (Trump) has a long record of engaging in racist behavior, and the birther lie was a very hurtful one,” she said, adding: “Barack Obama is a man of great dignity, and I could tell how much it bothered him and annoyed him that this was being touted and used against him.”

Trump, however, sought to hit back, saying Clinton’s “holier thou attitude” would not work since one of her top aides during her 2008 presidential bid had sent a reporter to Kenya to find out if Obama was born there. “She (Clinton) failed to get the birth certificate. When I got involved, I didn’t fail. I got him to give the birth certificate. So I’m satisfied with it,” said Trump.

While Clinton appeared calm and composed throughout the debate, Trump lost his cool frequently and kept interrupting her more often than she did. Media outlets, keeping a tab on this aspect, said while Trump interrupted Clinton 51 times, she interrupted him “just 17 times”.

When debate moderator Lester Holt brought up the issue of cyber

security, Clinton

cleverly used it to target Russia for the hacking of Democratic National Committee ahead of the party convention and singled out Trump for his laudatory references to Vladimir Putin’s leadership quality.

In his response, Trump said while it was still to be established whose handiwork it was, what one learned from the hacked emails was that Clinton’s aides had tried to take advantage of her primary rival, Bernie Sanders.

Trump and Clinton also clashed on who was better placed to defeat ISIS. While Clinton touted her website containing her plan of action, Trump once again blamed the rise of ISIS on the Obama-Clinton decision on complete withdrawal of forces from Iraq, leaving a vacuum.

He then went on to charge Clinton, “You were Secretary of State when it (ISIS) was a little infant. Now it’s in

over 30 countries. And you’re going to stop them? I don’t think so.”

He also attacked Clinton on trade policy issues, supporting NAFTA that is “one of the worst things that ever happened to the (American) manufacturing industry” and for initially backing the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership” as a gold standard trade pact and then flipping it when he made it a major campaign issue. Clinton sought to counter the accusation as inaccurate.

With the two candidates virtually tied in a number of polls in recent days, it remains to be seen how the debate performance impacts their standing in the coming days. Two more presidential debates are slated for October.

(the pioneer)