Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for the United States presidential election, was fortunate in three respects with regard to the first debate on September 26: It came on a Monday (allowing the story to play out without interruption); there is now a significant break until the next debate on October 9 (again, allowing the debate to dominate coverage); and, most important, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is having a public temper tantrum while his staff members begin to shift blame to him.
The temper tantrum may not be so much luck as it may be an unexpected excess of riches. Hillary certainly earned her debate win, due in large part to her ability to needle him. What she and her staff may not have expected is how badly Trump would react day after day, making him once again the story. (When Trump is the story, it’s never good for him.)
Trump is blaming everyone in sight for his cruddy outing and whining that no one takes the unscientific online polls seriously. (Not even Fox!) He is so desperate for polling affirmation that he is touting the sort of polls that used to show former representative Ron Paul the “winner” according to 90 per cent of the people who clicked to register their approval. He’s becoming a pathetic figure: He’s willing to believe anything — and to get his fans to as well — to preserve his fragile ego.
And perhaps better than expected, the Miss Universe Alicia Machado “fat-shaming” flap has essentially gone viral. It’s the sort of non-policy, relatable issue everyone can understand. In arranging for her to speak to the media, the Hillary campaign guaranteed the issue would extend beyond the debate. Even US President Barack Obama piled on in a radio interview. And first lady Michelle Obama referred to it obliquely. She told a crowd last Tuesday that “if a candidate regularly and flippantly makes cruel and insulting comments about women — about how we look, how we act — well, sadly, that’s who that candidate really is.” How long the story continues depends on how long Trump keeps engaging.
This issue works splendidly because Hillary needs overwhelming support from minorities and white women, as well as from college-educated voters, many of whom are likely to think worse of Trump after learning about this.
The best sort of debate win is the one with the memorable lines that get recycled in free media, speeches and eventually paid ads. If the issue is juicy enough, it may even come up at the next debate. In this case, it also happens that while this is going on — between now and October 9 — a lot of people will be voting early. That will be taking place in states such as Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois, Iowa and parts of Wisconsin.
It is fair to ask why, in nearly a year of primary campaigning, Trump’s GOP opponents couldn’t manage to do a fraction of the damage the Hillary team has already inflicted. You can “thank” Reince Priebus in part for that. Keeping the stage crowded insulated Trump from one-on-one attacks and in essence helped restrain him from hurting himself. The one really bad incident was an encounter with Carly Fiorina over — yes, that’s right — her appearance.
Moreover, Republican competitors in the primary never quite figured out that the way to beat Trump was not to show he lacked conservative bona fides, but to expose him as a peevish child, hungering for attention and approval. And here’s the other problem: The GOP primary electorate has become so white, so old and so socially conservative that this kind of attack might not even have occurred to Trump’s opponents or been appreciated by primary voters. (He did, after all, call Mexicans “rapists” and get his insults of women read back to him. He still won.) That is one of the many perils of reducing the party’s base to such a narrow sliver of the electorate.
— Washington Post
Jennifer Rubin is an American neoconservative columnist and a blogger. Previously she worked at Commentary, PJ Media, Human Events, and The Weekly Standard.
