The Debate About a ‘Third World Country’

The big question, heading into the first presidential debate, was:

Which Donald Trump was going to show up tonight?

Trump did.

“Trump was Trump, and it wasn’t good for him tonight,” said David Axelrod, the chief strategist behind President Barack Obama’s election, in post-debate analysis on CNN.

In the first of three nationally televised presidential debates, in which Hillary Clinton’s legendary preparation was matched against Donald Trump’s infamous improvisation, practice appears to have prevailed.

In these debates which often provide one memorable comment, Clinton managed to mouth hers twice about Trump’s economic plans: “Trumped-up, Trickle-down.” She described his tax plans as “the Trump loophole.”

“Donald Trump just criticized me for preparing for this debate, and yes I dd,’’ the former secretary of state, senator from New York and first lady said at one point, “and you know what else I prepared for? I prepared for being president, and that is a good thing.”

From opening to closing, the Republican nominee fell back on tired talking points while the Democratic nominee led him in obvious nodding agreement through a 90-minute conversation across a wide array of issues. Only on trade did Trump forcefully challenge Clinton, but then, as he started talking over her, the billionaire TV reality star lost his cool. She kept hers.

As the encounter ended, there was more conversation about Trump’s longstanding insistence that President Barack Obama is not a U.S.-born citizen than any issues of actual substance.

“I was very proud that I got him to bring up his birth certificate,’’ Trump said on his way out of the first of the debates at Hofstra University.

If there is more to debates than substance, as legend would have us believe, Trump’s persistent sniffling, stifling apparent head congestion in his first encounter with an opponent recently recovered from pneumonia, was evocative of Richard Nixon’s sweating in the first televised debate in 1960.

If anyone hung around for the end of the 90-minute debate, Clinton’s comment about Trump reinforcing the TV ads her campaign has run had to ring powerfully:

“This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs:”

Trump’s response: Rosie O’Donnell deserved it.

Trump attempted to say that Clinton “doesn’t have the look” of a president — and “doesn’t have the stamina.”

“Well, as soon as he travels to 120 countries,” the former globe-trotting diplomat said, “he can talk to me about stamina.”

In a debate in which the moderator was going to be pressed to fact-check misstatements, NBC’s Lester Holt did at the most critical moment:

“I was against the war in Iraq,” Trump said.

“The record shows otherwise,” Holt said.

When they spoke of racial justice, Clinton pointed to the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit in the 1960s against Trump’s family company in New York for discrimination in apartment rentals to African Americans.

“They sued many people,” Trump said — and his company settled without admitting guilt. “It’s just one of those things.”

“What do you say to racial healing in America?” Holt asked Trump

“I say nothing,” Trump said.

Clinton held Trump indefensible on his criticism for the administration’s handling of the threat of ISIS in the Middle East.

“You have no plan,” Clinton said.

“Oh I do,” Trump said, without explanation.

When Clinton probed Trump’s refusal to reveal his personal federal tax returns, she elicited an admission of sorts:

“Why won’t he release his tax returns?” she asked. “Maybe that he’s paid nothing in taxes.”

“That makes me smart,” Trump said.

If there was a ripe opening, Trump played this one well:

”I have a feeling by the end of this evening I’m going to be blamed for everything that’s ever happened,” Clinton said.

“Why not?” Trump asked.

On social justice, Clinton was able to draw a stark contrast.

“African Americans, Hispanics are living in Hell,” Trump said.

Ultimately, Trump, who has campaigned with an appeal to “Make America Great Again,” has portrayed an image of the world’s greatest nation which must be reconciled with Americans’ perception of their country on Nov. 8:

“We’ve become a Third World Country,” the Republican nominee for president of the United States said in the first debate for the White House.

Added note:

The next morning, Trump was complaining on Fox News, his personal sounding board, that his debate microphone wasn’t working right, and it was set too low. He also suggested that someone rigged it — “I don’t want to believe in conspiracy theories, of course.”

But millions of debate watchers heard both Trump and Clinton just fine.

As Clinton put it to Trump: “You live in your own reality.”