September 25, 2016

Yes it is the night before the first in of a series of debates before the presidential election. The talking heads are almost in full swing trying to out guess what the candidates will do tomorrow night. So does it really matter what they say or how they say what they will tomorrow night. To be honest I have to admit that I have, to a great extent, “prejudged these two candidates.

I expect Mr. Trump to continue doing what has worked so far and that is for him to be himself. He will come in direct and with likely little filter. As he has done forever he will be the multi-millionaire (or is it billionaire?) that says exactly what he is thinking at that moment in time. He has as high of a 50/50 chance of being wrong and will have to correct himself in subsequent interviews.   This worked during the campaign because people were sick and tired of politics as usual. Tell people what they want to hear and once in office figure out how to talk it all away, how the opponents undermined your authority and so on. What made him so well liked out on the campaign trail has also become his greatest problem. As president of the United States one must have a filter, one must think before speaking.

Now we come to Madam Secretary Clinton. I too have some expectations with regards to her performance and to be frank, I expect her to remain the same as always. Speaking truthfully and honestly is like Kryptonite to Superman when it comes to her. There is not an utterance that escapes her lips that has not been through focus groups, gone through judicial review, and rehearsed at least twice ahead of time. She is the consummate politician that assumes to know what I need, what I want from my elected leadership, and how I expect to be spoken to.

In the end I see two candidates that do not really appeal to me. One has a big mouth but I can believe what he says. Yeah he is a screw up in that way but I can overlook that sort of behavior since it can be corrected. Now the other candidate cannot be trusted to tell you the time of day. This I cannot overlook since it isn’t a behavior that can’t be corrected. We are talking about a character flaw of the deepest nature and that is exactly what I expect from her.