The next president of the United States...

[Vlad Drkulec]

Based on the debate, and unless there is some drastic change in circumstances it will be Donald Trump....

[Paul Bonham]

Re: The next president of the United States...

Based on the debate, and unless there is some drastic change in circumstances it will be Donald Trump....

Vlad, I don't know what planet you're on tonight, but here on Earth, Hillary won the debate hands down. CNN had a group of 20 undecided voters from central Florida, a battleground state and quite possibly the state to decide the election. Of the 20, an incredible 18 thought Hillary won the debate, and several of them were committing to Hillary just from her performance tonight.

You can listen to them, or you can listen to Vlad, who like Trump is a climate change denier and an expert in manipulating people to his own advantage.

I have copied the transcript of tonight's debate, and here are a few key points to illustrate Trump's inadequacies:

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Point #1

TRUMP STARTS WITH A LIE

Moderator Lester Holt started with a question on the economy, and noted this fact: "There's been a record six straight years of job growth, and new census numbers show incomes have increased at a record rate after years of stagnation."

OK, 6 straight years of job growth. What was Trump's first statement of the entire debate (after thanking Lester Holt) ?

"Our jobs are fleeing the country."

Trump starts off with the politics of fear. Lie if you have to, but strike fear into the population. Right out of the Hitler playbook. (OMG! Godwin's Law! What have I done?!)

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Point #2

Later on.....still answering the same question, Trump says: "So Ford is leaving. You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio."

Another outright lie. The CEO of Ford was on CNN last week, and promised that Ford's expansion into Mexico is not causing loss of A SINGLE AMERICAN JOB. Since that is something that can be easily fact checked, I'll believe the Ford CEO and call Trump a liar yet again.

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Point #3

When Clinton said "In fact, Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis. He said, back in 2006, 'Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money.' Well, it did collapse."

Trump responded: "That's called business, by the way."

Here, Trump DOES NOT DENY Clinton's allegation. And that alone is evidence that Trump is only for Trump. He is NOT for all Americans, he is only FOR HIMSELF. His running for the Presidency is just another version of what he considers business. It would be great for his companies, for his family, for himself.

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Point #4

This is the last one I'll mention for now, although there's plenty more.

When the subject of Trump not releasing his tax returns came up, Clinton said: "Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax."

To which Trump responded: "That makes me smart."

Ouch! The worst snafu of the night for Trump! He has just admitted that he hasn't paid any federal taxes for the past many years!

After the debate, reporters were crowded around Trump, and all of them were bringing this up. They sensed this was the biggest revelation of the whole debate. Trump is not paying federal taxes! And right there on live TV (CNN) a reporter asked him the question point blank: "Have you not paid any federal taxes for several years?"

Trump's answer: "I HATE what the government is doing with our tax money..." (and further ranting about wasted government spending).

Wow! Trump not only hasn't been paying taxes, but he APPROVES of not paying taxes AS A PROTEST AGAINST GOVERNMENT SPENDING!

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The next president of the United States...

Am I the only one here in Canada not being afraid of Trump? It's like, all the commentators get their panties in a bunch at the very possibility of Trump leading in a poll.

The guy's an idiot, alright. I don't like him and I wouldn't vote for him. But even if he's elected, I don't think he could do much damage.

This is not 1933. An autocrat can't take over in such a direct way. In fact, Trump being elected and failing hard could even be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

[Andy Shaw]

Re: The next president of the United States...

Am I the only one here in Canada not being afraid of Trump? It's like, all the commentators get their panties in a bunch at the very possibility of Trump leading in a poll.

The guy's an idiot, alright. I don't like him and I wouldn't vote for him. But even if he's elected, I don't think he could do much damage.

This is not 1933. An autocrat can't take over in such a direct way. In fact, Trump being elected and failing hard could even be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

How is the guy an idiot?

[Paul Bonham]

Re: The next president of the United States...

Am I the only one here in Canada not being afraid of Trump? It's like, all the commentators get their panties in a bunch at the very possibility of Trump leading in a poll.

The guy's an idiot, alright. I don't like him and I wouldn't vote for him. But even if he's elected, I don't think he could do much damage.

This is not 1933. An autocrat can't take over in such a direct way. In fact, Trump being elected and failing hard could even be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

As much as I may post anti-Trump stuff here, I am somewhat in agreement with what Mathieu has posted here. Although I will say, I don't think we should underestimate the potential of a loss of rights -- voting and otherwise -- anywhere in the world including the United States. All it would take is some kind of terrorist attack that enables the government to enact "Emergency Powers" of some sort. I've said this many times here: your rights are really not rights, they are privileges. The government grants them, and the government can take them away.

Even the U.S. Constitution can be made a distant memory if the right circumstances come about.

I will not panic if Trump gets elected. In fact, I will view that as "Alright, now the fun REALLY BEGINS!"

Trump as President will be an epic fail among epic fails.

There will be no beautiful wall, there will be economic collapse greater than the Great Depression (although this may take until the 3rd or 4th year of Trump's Presidency to take hold), Trump will break treaties with countries like Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, possibly even Israel, which will lead to no end of chaos in world affairs... Trump may even default on the U.S. debt (remember, he LOVES bankruptcy!)......which would backfire, as it would make all fiat currencies worthless..... the list goes on and on.

[David Ottosen]

Re: The next president of the United States...

I dont think the debate changed the minds of anyone. Hillary supporters found lots of terrible stuff about Trump and nothing about her platform, Trump supporters heard lots of bluster with not much substance that made sense. Basically the same as every other day in this election. The debate had no winner, just made a loser out of everyone who watched.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: The next president of the United States...

How is the guy an idiot?

Well of course you would be the last to know.
If you knew what was idiotic, you would not have made the dozen or so posts you made in the past year or two. Just ask GM Bator Sambuev.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: The next president of the United States...

I dont think the debate changed the minds of anyone. Hillary supporters found lots of terrible stuff about Trump and nothing about her platform, Trump supporters heard lots of bluster with not much substance that made sense. Basically the same as every other day in this election. The debate had no winner, just made a loser out of everyone who watched.

I'm afraid that last sentence is more a condemnation of politics in general than a real observation of the debate.

So you personally don't think there is any hope through politics, is that it? I believe many would share that view. But alas, politics is still the only avenue through which to achieve real change. Occupy Wall Street proved that we still can't enact change through protest. And the business world is only full of more Trumps, out for themselves. So what would you suggest?

For the moment, Hillary is the world's best hope.

But let's be real: Hillary isn't a world-saver. And in the spirit of being real, let's admit that something that was said to Corey Lewandowski (Trump's former campaign manager) tonight on CNN was very very honest:

"If you wake up and every problem is solved, you are dead."

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The next president of the United States...

So you personally don't think there is any hope through politics, is that it? I believe many would share that view. But alas, politics is still the only avenue through which to achieve real change. Occupy Wall Street proved that we still can't enact change through protest. And the business world is only full of more Trumps, out for themselves. So what would you suggest?

For the moment, Hillary is the world's best hope.

'Real change', 'politics', 'Hillary' and 'hope'...

Sorry, but I don't think these concepts can mix together very well.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The next president of the United States...

"Trump is ... an expert in manipulating people to his own advantage."

From my perspective that is the takeaway from your long comment and from the debate last night. The man did a commercial for his new hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in the middle of the debate. Unless something drastically changes he is going to win the election.

I watched the debate on Fox where they showed both individuals side by side for the whole debate on a split screen. With the help of the moderator and superior preparation Hillary "won" the debate but lost the election. Trump was on defense for most of the night but he did score some points here and there with his canned preparation and he came off as mostly reasonable. Hillary's canned preparation mostly fell flat except to appeal to those who are already convinced she should win. I guess we will see in the next few days.

Telling me what CNN (Clinton News Network) said about the result of the debate is amusing but not very relevant as most are not watching CNN and its associated spin.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The next president of the United States...

The latest LA Times poll has Trump up by 3 points. Nothing that happened last night broke his momentum and that is why she failed.

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: The next president of the United States...

I dont think the debate changed the minds of anyone. Hillary supporters found lots of terrible stuff about Trump and nothing about her platform, Trump supporters heard lots of bluster with not much substance that made sense. Basically the same as every other day in this election. The debate had no winner, just made a loser out of everyone who watched.

I agree with this 100%. I personally think that in elections facts barely matter. If you liked the Trump Show you will vote Trump. If you liked the Clinton Show you will vote Clinton. No mention of bankruptcies, lost e-mails, Foundation shenanigans, or (c)overt racism is going to change that.

Notice that the candidates delivered almost no facts.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The next president of the United States...

In general, I am not a big Trump fan. I consider him a bit of a blowhard when he gives in to his instincts. There were probably half a dozen in the Republican field who would have given Hillary a harder time but you are right about his ability to manipulate opinion to his own advantage. He is a master persuader and that will be the difference.

Last night he missed several chances to tag Hillary with the email server issue especially when they talked about the Cyber threats.

Hillary did the predictable mantra

Scary
Racist
Sexist
Inexperienced
Unfit

Trump countered it. If the Obama birther issue is their best lead on the racist front it was an epic fail.

Trump used the same gambit against Ted Cruz.

[Brad Thomson]

Re: The next president of the United States...

Trump stunk the joint out, he was pathetic. The audience was obviously stacked with Clinton supporters, and the moderator was clearly paid to support Clinton and work against Trump. Typical American garbage, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: The next president of the United States...

How is the guy an idiot?

The guys in charge of defense had to spend hours explaining to him that you can't use nuclear weapons against ISIS.

Also, the whole 'birther' stuff.

And that's just two exemples.