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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Trump Does Better in Second Debate than in First, But Hillary Was More Presidential

Donald Trump did better in his second debate with Hillary Clinton than his first - a very low bar - but Clinton commanded the stage with her calm and rationality, and was more Presidential.

And you if look more carefully at the debate, it turns out Trump lied repeatedly - again.  He indeed voiced support for our Iraq War at the time, but repeated tonight that he did not.  He made the wild claim that our slain ambassador in Libya appealed for help "600 times" before he died.  He said Hillary Clinton was responsible for Obama not respecting the "red line" he drew in Syria, when in fact although Clinton was Secretary of State when Obama drew it, Kerry was Secretary of State when Obama did not enforce it. Trump and the truth continue to have the most fleeting of relationships.

And he was over the top lots of times, as when he said, incredibly, that he would put Hillary in jail if he were President - a statement that has been aptly decried by many as "banana republic" (no offense to the clothing chain).

Trump showed some style only once, at the end, when he said, in response to naming one thing he admired about Hillary Clinton, that she was a fighter.  She showed class, too, in her answer - that she admired the job he had done with his kids - and throughout her generally positive debate tonight, with fewer attacks on Trump than he rightly deserved.

Also worthy of praise were Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz, who easily were the best debate moderators so far, in this very contentious presidential season.

Look, I would've like to have seen Hillary Clinton lacerate Trump on the stage tonight, but I'm more than content to wait for election night in November for that to happen, and Hillary did a good job in making that more likely tonight.

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