As the US elections get closer and the writing is clearly on the wall, Trump seems to be getting more desperate and more ‘Trumpish’ in his futile attempts to gain lost ground. Which as we speak, is slithering further and further away from under his feet.
Just witness their second national debate in Town hall aired this week.
The debate began on a wrong note.
Gold Rate
Thursday 13 March 2025
Breaking a tradition of good faith between the parties, the nominees did not shake hands upon their entrance.
Upon entering the Town Hall meeting, Clinton and Trump did not shake hands as they did during their first debate. Rather, they nodded at one another and said hello, moving to their respective spots on the stage as the debate began. This set a tone of negativity that continued throughout the evening.
Hillary was later collected and her intellectually vocal self when she quoted Michelle Obama saying ” when your opponent takes the low road, you take the high”. She said this after Trump ranted about how Hillary had been complicit in her husband’s “exploitation of women” and raved about how he would “put her in jail” if elected President. I am sure even his die-hard fans cringed at some of the statements that came out of his mouth.
( During a question and answer session with reporters after the debate, Clinton remarked of Trump’s close proximity, “It was a very small space. And I tried to give him space whenever he was talking to people. I would go back and you know, lean up against my stool. But he was very present.”)
Dan Rather, an American columnist has written in his blog:
‘As Donald Trump paced menacingly last night on stage, as he threatened Hillary Clinton with imprisonment even though her actions have already been subjected to the arm of justice, as he batted away concerns over the leaked audio of him boasting of sexual assault as mere “locker room talk”, the cumulative image for millions of votes, I suspect, is that this is a man who, at a fundamental level, does not understand what it means to be an American. And thus, by logical extension, he has no business being president.
Accusations against Hillary have never have never been proven by fact – yet Trump holds her guilty on many counts.
But Trump by contrast boasts of how the law should not apply to him. As crude as the nouns were in that leaked audio tape, what was most offensive was the relish with which he outlined a host of actions – the verbs – for which the rule of law says he does not have the right to act without consent. Yet his voice reeked of the privilege of a man who believed his celebrity removed any such constraints. When he told HIllary Clinton in the debate she would “be in jail” if he were president, those are the threats of a despot, tyrant, or monarch – not a president governed by our Constitution.’
In his last ditch efforts, Trump has found a willing – and equally dubious – partner in Julian Assange of Wikileaks.
In an attempt to deflect from the damaging audio tape that was leaked last Friday, the Trump campaign has focused on the overload of wikileals emails released over the weekend. While some of what was released seems to have at least some legitimacy, one of the talking points used the most by Trump appears to be based on a major inaccuracy.
Russia interfering in US elections?
For weeks, Wikileaks and their founder, Julian Assange, have been threatening to leak information that could be allegedly fatal to the#Hillary Clinton campaign. Almost on cue as the Trump audio tape was released, hacked emails from the Clinton campaign and those close to her began trickling out over the next few days. One of the emails claims to be from long-time Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal, which allegedly uncovered secret information about what went down during the Benghazi attacks in 2012. Described as the ultimate “smoking gun,” Trump latched onto the email which put nearly all the blame for the attack on the doorstep of the former Secretary of State.But a report in Newsweek on October 10 tells another side to the story. The source of the original hack has been universally linked to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, though many on the American right appear to question the allegations, presumably due to political reasons. Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwalk confirmed that the email that was published in the Russian media and since quoted by Trump ad nauseam, was not from a Clinton email source, but rather from an article he wrote last October in the magazine which was apparently taken fully out of context. As of press time, the Trump campaign have yet to comment on the latest revelation.
Despite his latest talking-point being discredited, it’s unlikely that Trump will retract his statement due to his supporters distrust of Clinton, the Democrats, and, what they describe as, the “liberal” media. In just 28 days, however, voters will cast their vote for the next commander in chief, with the most recent round of polling giving Clinton a growing lead.
That Democrats are set to create history of sorts by coming back to power for an unprecedented third term after completion of Obama’s 8 years, was seen by President Obama’s mood in his campaign speeches.
President Obama has been scathing in his speeches on behalf of Hillary Clinton, his once Secretary of State and Democratic candidate now.
Obama’s mood was buoyant, playful, and much more unrestrained in attacking a Republican party that has tried to stymie his agenda over 8 bitter political years.
“You have the feeling, that feeling the swell of rising approval ratings and the diminishing sands of time for his own administration, Obama is ready to let loose at a level we haven’t quite seen before.” says an American journalist.
While preaching his long held rhetoric of the basic decency of Americans across the political spectrum, Obama zeroed his sights on the GOP (Republican) leadership who he says, by their obstructionism and countenancing of such lies like he was not born in America or he is a secret Muslim, have paved the way for Donald Trump – a man he says you wouldn’t hire for a job at 7/11, let alone the presidency of the United States.
Is this assessment accurate? Americans will answer in a few weeks.
… Sunita Mudaliar – Associate Editor
