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The mainstream media’s anti-Trump hysteria and bias knows no bounds. Enter Lester Holt, a typical establishment liberal masquerading as a kindly, gentlemanly, moderate. Holt proceeded to steer the direction of the debate towards a Trump inquisition, directing no less than half a dozen critical follow-up questions at Trump while giving Clinton a pass on virtually everything.
Trump’s tax returns, business dealings, position on the Iraq War, and even his administration of a beauty pageant were all put under the microscope by the Clinton-Holt tag-team. Meanwhile, the smorgasbord of potentially juicy Clinton-related topics was left unexamined:
- The Clinton Foundation with its pay-to-play scandals and billions of dollars from shadowy foreign corporations, governments, and wealthy donors? Zero.
- The Clinton e-mail scandal which, according to many experts, should have resulted in criminal prosecution and exposed national security secrets? We’ll leave that for another day.
- The Clinton State Department’s bogus nation-building effort in Libya which turned the nation into a haven for terrorism, factionalism, and radical jihadism? Nada.
- The Benghazi fiasco in which, under Clinton’s watch, members of our diplomatic corps were left as sitting ducks with inadequate protection, while the Obama/Clinton machine blamed the attacks on an obscure YouTube video? We’ll just forget about that.
Time and time again, Clinton, aided and abetted by a comically one-sided Holt, successfully dodged bullets and deflected criticism, while turning the tables on Trump, with varying degrees of success. The real question was: why was Trump so ineffective at landing solid shots given the incredible amount of material that he had to work with?
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To begin with, a debate stage is a very different forum from the stadium mega-rally where Trump’s persona truly shines. Clinton is a polished, almost robotic, politician who is sufficiently disciplined to know how and when to go on the offensive, and when to hold back. These are tools that Trump must sharpen in the coming debates if he hopes to have a credible shot at the presidency.
While Trump had low expectations going into the debate, and avoided a major meltdown, he fundamentally failed to realize that if a moderator does not raise pertinent issues, then it becomes incumbent upon him to inject them into the debate. He missed some very important opportunities to turn the table both on Clinton and the Obama administration:
1. The National Debt
Trump did manage to land a few blows on this topic, but due to rhetorical failings and his generally disorganized thought process, it was not nearly as effective as it could have been. Under Obama’s stewardship, the national debt has more than doubled from just under USD $10 trillion to nearly USD $20 trillion. Put another way, he has added more to the national debt than the previous 43 presidents combined.
2. Obamacare
Virtually every component of Obamacare has been exposed as a lie. Obamacare is nothing but a corrupt bargain between big government and big business that will line the pockets of the wealthy in the healthcare industry while screwing the American taxpayers. It is predicated on the absurd notion that by moving towards universal care, premiums will go down. How did Trump miss so many opportunities on this issue? Obama said:
- “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” LIE.
- “Obamacare is about choice and competition.” LIE. There is now less choice and less competition than before.
- “Premiums will go down.” LIE. Premiums have gone up across the United States, as insurance companies throughout the nation are raising premiums by astronomical sums to cover the new costs imposed by Obamacare.
Indeed, polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans oppose the program.
3. The Labor Market
The labor force participation rate (18 to 65 year olds) is at 63 percent, its lowest point since 1978. Put another way, 37 percent of working age Americans are not working, which means they are taking benefits from the federal government but are not paying anything into the system. What could possibly go wrong, right?
4. Persecution of Political Opponents
Here was a perfect issue to throw some red meat to the base. The Obama administration has politicized the Justice Department and the federal bureaucracy to pursue political opponents and pardon political allies like never before. The IRS targets Tea Party and conservative groups for scrutiny, while Al Sharpton gets a slap on the wrist for massive tax evasion. The Obama administration’s FBI does everything it can to make sure that Hillary’s blatant lawbreaking will not result in a criminal indictment.
5. Illegal Immigration and Border Security
Trump has put these two issues on the map, but over the course of 90 minutes he was unable to get a single word in on this topic. Obama has been criminally negligent in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, turning over our southern border to murderous drug and human trafficking gangs, and operating a catch and release program whereby an estimated 80% of illegal immigrants arriving on US soil are released for future court dates that they rarely attend.
Obama and Clinton want to reward people who broke the law with amnesty and citizenship, with the overarching goal of turning illegal immigrants into a future generation of Democratic voters. All the while, the Obama administration refuses to address the hundreds of thousands of serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants on US soil every year.
6. Terrorism and the War Against ISIS
To Obama the real problem in the United States is not radical jihadist terrorism, but Islamophobia and violation of Muslims’ civil rights. Obama’s ludicrously bad leadership in the Middle East has resulted in a tiny renegade band of 30,000 jihadists taking over two nations with a combined population of 60 million people. Rather than pursuing a decisive international coalition to put ISIS out of commission, and arming the Kurds, our only legitimate allies in the region, Obama has been more focused on releasing dangerous terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, and is shocked and dismayed when they return to the battlefield, as hundreds have done.
Trump should have said, “The Obama administration’s indecisive leadership in the Middle East has aided the rise of ISIS, and he has made political correctness a greater priority than fighting the war on terror.”
