One of my favorite movies was the 1955 film “Prince of Players” where Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth was played by Richard Burton. In the movie, weeks after his brother assassinated President Lincoln, Edwin Booth returns to the stage to play Hamlet. When the curtain rises he is confronted by an angry crowd. That is easy to understand, under the circumstances. His brother was the most hated man in America. Booth (Richard Burton) is sitting there while the crowd is literally pummeling him with anything they can throw. The rest of the cast flees the stage in horror, but Booth does not move. He just sits their stoically absorbing their fury. Finally everything changes when one protestor yells, “He’s got guts.” Eventually the crowd stops screaming and starts clapping. Gradually, the rest of the cast returns and Booth goes on with the play.

In many ways the Prince of Players reminds me of Donald Trump. Never in our history has one person received such vicious, unrelenting negative coverage by the press. It clearly has become personal and it is obvious that many in the MSM absolutely despise the man. When those awful tapes were released the MSM attacked with all its fury. In many ways, Trump deserved their scorn; the tapes were indeed that bad. But I am beginning to think the MSM has made an enormous mistake. Instead of destroying Trump, they just may have exposed him as a man of unusual strength and courage. Trump definitely has his faults, but he also has guts. At some point one has to admire a man who can absorb such punishment without backing down. If people start to admire Trump for his raw intestinal fortitude, the MSM media, on mission to destroy him, may ironically propel him into the White House.

When you think about it, the most important characteristic of a President of the United States is strength of character. Strength of character does not mean being a choir boy who obeys all the rules. It is rather a flawed human being capable of making impossible decisions. FDR and Churchill both ordered mass bombing raids on civilian populations. How does one justify giving such an order? The answer is quite simply that both men realized that the most unethical decision they could make is one that would let either Germany or Japan win that war. Yet most of us cannot imagine ordering a bombing raid that would level a city and destroy 100,000 innocent civilians. I definitely would not want to be confronted with that kind of decision. These are not necessarily nice people, but they are necessary people. We are all very fortunate that FDR was President of the United States and Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II.

Perhaps it is time that people start to ask a simple question. What, exactly, are we looking for in a Commander in Chief? I think choosing a person with guts is a good place to start.

TDM

In case you think this election is over, check out what Hillary said that was just released by wiki-leaks.  If you don’t think this is going to hurt her with Muslims and African Americans, then you are assuming, like her, that they can’t read and write.  She said no one will admit the real problem with our immigration policies:

“The main reason behind successful immigration should be painfully obvious to even the most dimwitted of observers: Some groups of people are almost always highly successful given only half a chance (Jews*, Hindus/Sikhs and Chinese people, for example), while others (Muslims, blacks** and Roma***, for instance) fare badly almost irrespective of circumstances.”

For years we have been inundated with the myth that Republicans are racists while people like Bill and Hillary Clinton are the pillars of the civil rights movement. If a Republican said something like this, it would be front page news.  The screams of racism would fill the air ways.  Odds are no MSM outlet will even report on this.  They would rather convince themselves that while Hillary lies to everyone else, when she says she agrees with them, somehow, miraculously, she is telling the truth.

TDM

I do not know who will be the next President of the United States, but it will not be Donald Trump. Hillary could literally drop dead and she would still beat him after this idiotic video surfaced. This is unbelievable. No, sorry, the problem is that it is very believable. Is this really a surprise? Is there anything about this inconsistent with everything we know about the man? For months I have desperately trying to convince myself that Trump wasn’t “THAT” bad.  Anything would be better than Hillary, “Right?”  Unfortunately the answer clearly is yes, he is exactly “THAT” bad. Never Trump was right all along.  The only question at this point is whether or not Trump will man up and withdraw for the good of the country.

Several months ago I privately told friends that I thought there was a significant chance that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump would be candidates for President on Election Day. The reason was that neither candidate came close to having the character and temperament necessary to be a Commander in Chief. I thought one or more of them would self-destruct. I figured if one of them went, odds were pretty high they would both go. But to be honest, that seemed impossible as recently as yesterday. It doesn’t seem so impossible today. This is a reminder that life can change in the blink of an eye and the eye just blinked. I really don’t see how Trump survives this. Hillary could be indicted tomorrow and it probably wouldn’t be enough to save Trump. Republicans are abandoning Trump as we speak. Don’t be surprised to see some Democrats and the MSM make a least a feeble attempt to save Trump. Right now the Democratic Party and the MSM both WANT Donald Trump to stay in the race.

But imagine Trump withdrawing to be replaced by Mike Pence. A lot of senior Democrats are doing exactly that and it has to be terrifying. When Hillary does feel up to campaigning, she can’t draw a crowd big enough to fill a phone booth. No one even pretends to be excited about her vision for the future. She has simply been playing the “No Trump” card assuming nothing else would be required. That came close to being accurate. But, if Trump withdraws the “No Trump” card becomes worthless and there is no Hillary card. Let’s be blunt here, Bill is looking really old and Hillary looks pretty feeble. The Clinton machine is yesterday’s news. Odds are I am not the only one who noticed that. If Hillary starts to look like the biggest loser, anything is possible. The only thing certain is uncertainty.

TDM

Before the debate, I was predicting that Mike Pence would outperform Tim Kaine. That was an easy prediction. But I never dreamed it would be this bad. This was definitely the most one-sided debate I have ever seen. Mike Pence won in every way possible.

No pundit is even pretending that Kaine won this puppy. Instead they are desperately hoping that MSM fact checking will miraculously grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. The fact checking is idiotic. For example Kaine said that Trump wants more nations to have nuclear weapons and Pence said that is not true. The MSMS considers this to be a lie by Pence; but is it? Only an idiot would believe that Trump really wants more countries to have nuclear weapons. This is a classic example of word parsing by the MSM grossly distorting the context. What Trump actually said was that if countries like Iran had nuclear weapons he would have no problems with countries like Japan getting them too. Trump was dealing with the reality that the Obama administration has paved the way for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Numerous experts have agreed that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, other countries will demand that they too get nuclear weapons. How, exactly, could we tell them no? This is not a desire by Trump to see more nuclear weapons; it is only a rational response to the problem created by the stupidity of the Obama administration. The New York Post called this “remarkably disingenuous and dishonest.” In reality it was the New York Post that was “remarkably disingenuous and dishonest.”

Kaine also pointed out that both Pence and Trump said Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than Barack Obama. The MSM says that Pence denied that. But contrary to MSM spin, Pence did not deny that, he just pointed out the significant difference between “strong” and “good.” The MSM can’t grasp the concept. Most unbiased people don’t have that problem. When Trump said Putin was a stronger leader than Obama, he was just reporting the facts. Putin is a stronger and more effective leader than Obama. Trump never hinted that Putin was a good leader or anything resembling our friend.  If someone had asked FDR if Adolph Hitler was a strong leader, he would have said yes. Few would accuse him of praising Hitler.

Normally a Vice Presidential debate does not matter. But this year a whole lot of people hate both candidates. A majority of people hate Hillary Clinton and a majority of people hate Donald Trump. Very few people are thrilled with having to vote for either one. So what happens if you can’t bring yourself to vote for either Presidential Candidate? You can’t vote for Gary Johnson, because that would be insane. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that a lot of people will make their decision based on the VP candidate. Normally that would be absurd, but this year, that actually makes sense. Either VP could end up being President of the United States, sooner rather than later. If people are equally disgusted with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump they may just make their choice based on who is second in line.

In the meantime, Kaine clearly bombed and since this was the only VP debate, he has no opportunity to redeem himself. If you watched this debate with a shred of objectivity there was only one person on that stage that looked remotely qualified to be Commander in Chief. There was Kaine and there was Pence is actually looked Able. Perhaps Kaine really isn’t this stupid and he just fell on his sword for Hillary. Regardless of why, he was just plain awful. Even the liberal Democratic pundits admitted that Pence wiped the floor with him.

Before the debate, I was predicting that Mike Pence would outperform Tim Kaine. That was an easy prediction. But I never dreamed it would be this bad. This was definitely the most one-sided debate I have ever seen. Mike Pence won in every way possible.

No pundit is even pretending that Kaine won this puppy. Instead they are desperately hoping that MSM fact checking will miraculously grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. The fact checking is idiotic. For example Kaine said that Trump wants more nations to have nuclear weapons and Pence said that is not true. The MSMS considers this to be a lie by Pence; but is it? Only an idiot would believe that Trump really wants more countries to have nuclear weapons. This is a classic example of word parsing by the MSM grossly distorting the context. What Trump actually said was that if countries like Iran had nuclear weapons he would have no problems with countries like Japan getting them too. Trump was dealing with the reality that the Obama administration has paved the way for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Numerous experts have agreed that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, other countries will demand that they too get nuclear weapons. How, exactly, could we tell them no? This is not a desire by Trump to see more nuclear weapons; it is only a rational response to the problem created by the stupidity of the Obama administration. The New York Post called this “remarkably disingenuous and dishonest.” In reality it was the New York Post that was “remarkably disingenuous and dishonest.”

According to the MSM Kaine also pointed out that both Pence and Trump said Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than Barack Obama and Pence lied when he denied that.  But contrary to MSM spin, Pence did not deny that, he just pointed out the significant difference between “strong” and “good.” The MSM can’t grasp the concept. Most unbiased people don’t have that problem. When Trump said Putin was a stronger leader than Obama, he was just reporting the facts. Putin is a stronger and more effective leader than Obama. Trump never hinted that Putin was a good leader or anything resembling our friend.  If someone had asked FDR if Adolph Hitler was a strong leader, he would have said yes. Few would accuse him of praising Hitler.

Normally a Vice Presidential debate does not matter. But this year a whole lot of people hate both candidates. A majority of people hate Hillary Clinton and a majority of people hate Donald Trump. Very few people are thrilled with having to vote for either one. So what happens if you can’t bring yourself to vote for either Presidential Candidate? You can’t vote for Gary Johnson, because that would be insane. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that a lot of people will make their decision based on the VP candidate. Normally that would be absurd, but this year, that actually makes sense. Either VP could end up being President of the United States, sooner rather than later. If people are equally disgusted with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump they may just make their choice based on who is second in line.

In the meantime, Kaine clearly bombed and since this was the only VP debate, he has no opportunity to redeem himself. If you watched this debate with a shred of objectivity there was only one person on that stage that looked remotely qualified to be Commander in Chief. There was Kane, and Pence is actually looked Able. Perhaps Kaine really isn’t this stupid and he just fell on his sword for Hillary. Regardless of why, he was just plain awful. Even the liberal Democratic pundits admitted that Pence wiped the floor with him.

TDM

The main stream media is trying to portray the Vice Presidential debate as boring and meaningless. Translation, they don’t want you to watch.  In most years, they would be right. But, this is not most years. Up until now this campaign has been a mess with both candidates spending most of their time throwing mud at each other. Both have no problem finding ammunition. The MSM would have one believe that Trump being rude and insulting is just as important as Hillary being extremely careless with classified information. If Mike Pence can turn this into an adult conversation instead of a shouting match it could be devastating for Hillary Clinton.

Tim Kaine has been challenged with forcing Pence to “defend the indefensible.” The Clinton campaign is counting on making this all about Donald Trump. The MSM has its Fact Checking teams ready for action. But there is a problem. Mike Pence is not Donald Trump. He is not nearly as likely to rise to the bait and get distracted.   If Pence delivers a strong, adult indictment of Hillary Clinton it could be devastating. He just may be the best person to deliver that message. He is an experienced attorney. He is also an effective Talk Show host. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee in the House and he was Republican Conference Chairman, the third-highest ranking Republican in the House. This is a serious, polished politician with a ton of credibility.

The MSM is already trying to discredit Pence, but that may be easier said than done. The New York Times has already tried to claim Pence is a liar:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/opinion/campaign-stops/will-mike-pence-tell-the-truth.html

He’s called Trump’s back-and-forth immigration positions “completely consistent.” He claimed that raising income taxes reduced federal revenue. He said that President Obama’s health law would “deprive roughly 120 million Americans of their current health care coverage.” And Pence lied about Hillary Clinton’s actions during the Benghazi attacks

One will note that none of these are actual lies; they are just opinions with which the New York Times disagrees. But one will also note that the same article admits that Pence is a skilled politician:

Mike Pence, the Republican governor of Indiana, is a likable, often sunny conservative, according to those who know him. He is the kind of politician who could make the real conservative arguments I wish we heard more often.

It is impossible to predict anything, but if Pence gets this right and people start to take a serious look at Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation and the E-mail scandal, it may just rock Hillary’s world. It will be very interesting to see how this race looks Past Pence.

TDM

No one in either party gets it. Donald Trump is something we have never seen before. He is a man who is simply unafraid of telling the truth.   The man has a huge bullshit detector and he is not afraid to use it. For years we have watched the Republican establishment lose elections, terrified of their own shadow. If you accuse a Republican of racism, sexism or any other ism they cower in their corner, terrified of the light. Republicans even allowed Democrats, who institutionalized racism, to paint Republicans as the real racists. How exactly, did Republicans let that happen?

Trump simply does not play the game. When Hillary tried to play the sex card with this “Miss Universe” from Venezuela, every Republican urged Trump to back off. This is a game he cannot win and must not play, right? At first, I also questioned the judgement of someone who would get up at 3:20 a.m. to send an insulting tweet. Seriously? How immature can you get? This had to be a huge mistake, right? I mean what man in his right mind launches a Don Quixote type of attack at 3:20 in the morning. Hillary has already smirked that this is further evidence that Donald Trump is too childish and immature to be trusted with the nuclear codes. The MSM is chiming in on the chorus. But they are all missing something really important.

Then, it dawned on me. Although it is 3:20 in the morning and it does seem to border on insanity, there is something more at play here. Trump is actually right about this. It is a joke to consider this woman as representative of everything that is pure and good about the American woman.

Trump is right to complain about a beauty contest winner who adds 60 pounds or so to the menu and wonders why people notice. He is right to describe a tape where this woman has sex on live TV, covered by a blanket, as a sex tape. The vast majority of women, including a lot of Hispanic women, once they actually learn the truth, will agree with that. They will also be more than a little turned off by the inconvenient fact that this pillar of virtue is literally suspected of being an accomplice to murder. At some point, it will become obvious that this is just another example of the MSM turning the scum of the earth into Mother Theresa. Scum, even female scum, is still scum.

Oh, at first, it will help Hillary, but eventually the truth will become too obvious to ignore. It didn’t help when this symbol of the American woman stripped down to her underwear, or less, so she could defile an American flag. Are liberals really this tone death? We like our flag. We know we aren’t’ perfect, but neither is anyone else and we are a helluva lot better than the folks who point their slimy self-righteous fingers at us. This is our flag and we are sick and tired of the inconsiderate jerks that disrespect our flag with zero consideration for the sacrifices made by so many on its’ behalf. This is far more than a flag. It is a symbol of who we are and most of us are damn proud of that. I personally flew on over 200 combat missions proudly wearing that flag. I lost friends who died fighting for that flag. Spare me the nonsense.

Trump gets this. The MSM does not. Even Fox News doesn’t get this. They are all either screaming in outrage or begging Trump to stop. But Trump won’t stop because Trump knows that in the end the American people are hungry for someone ready, willing and able to tell them the cold hard truth. People like Colin Kaepernick are not heroes; they are self-centered ignorance fools who do not deserve one minute of our attention. People who yell Allahu Akbar while trying to kill as many people as possible really are motived by their religion, whether liberals want to believe that or not. Not all Muslims are terrorists. The vast majority of Muslims don’t like terrorists either, but terrorists love Islam and it would be idiotic to pretend that is not the case. Hillary Clinton is not only a serial liar, she lies about really important shit like Benghazi and her extreme carelessness with regard to protecting classified information. Hillary has zero accomplishments and the only reason anyone knows her name is because she married a serial sexual philanderer and not only turned a blind eye, she helped him cover his tracks. That is a lot of things, but it is not exactly a model for feminism.

Trump is right about a lot of things the MSM does not want to acknowledge. He is right that the gay rights movement has morphed into an anti-Christian crusade determined to require everyone to embrace their delusional view of morality. I don’t care what people do in their private lives, just keep it private.

He is right that we need to find a way to finally close our border. He is right that it is stupid to let anyone and everyone just walk across the border, regardless of their ability to contribute to our society as long as they are likely to vote Democrat. He is right that allowing a massive immigration of Muslims, most of whom are not a problem, is not acceptable when ISIS brags about seizing the day to send terrorists our way.  Eric Trump is right when he says how many jelly beans would you eat if you knew that somewhere in the mix there was one that would kill you? Trump is right when he says a black man, high on PCP is a threat and if we do not allow the police to stop them, who will stop them? Will they be impressed by some idiotic liberal talking about peace and love? Please! I personally will take my chances on the cop with a gun. Heck, I will do more than that; I will bring my own gun. Earth to liberals: when these guys start visiting your neighborhoods and terrorizing your ivory palaces; you will be cheering the guys with the guns trying to stop them.

When Trump says that a nuclear war is a far more serious threat than the myth of global warming, he is right. When he says we have been exporting our jobs to China by negotiating incredibly stupid trade agreements, he is right. If you doubt that go to any store and try to find “something” not made in China. And when Trump says that Hillary hiring private investigators to intimidate the numerous victims of her serial sex abusing husband is worse than him pointing out that Rosie O’ Donnell actually is fat and ugly he is right about that too.

Donald Trump is no saint. He is not even a good choir boy. But he does recognize the truth and for the first time, in a long time, he is willing to tell the truth without apparent regard to the consequences. It is like a breath of fresh air. The MSM cannot believe this is actually working. They are so used to their own bias that they no longer even recognize the truth. They are about to get shocked beyond recovery. Not only is Donald Trump going to win, he is going to win big. He is going to continue to say things that are true, but politically incorrect and the moans of the MSM will be drowned out by the loud cheers of the silent majority that simply is not willing to be silent any more. It is about time! Donald Trump is not only touching the third rail of politics, he is embracing it and it is quite possible he will ride that rail all the way to the White House.

TDM

Antidisestablishmentarism is actually a real word. It was developed in England in the 19^th century by people who were opposed to removing the Church of England as the state church of England. If you find this confusing, so did many people in the 19^th century. Yet, it is a cool word and it perfectly describes this election. The MSM is desperately trying to rescue Hillary Clinton from herself. They are trying to preserve the establishment in both parties. Antidisestablishmentarism describes it perfectly.

While a rapidly shrinking number of Kool-Aid drinking liberal left wackos still believe that Hillary is secretly honorable and trustworthy, the vast majority people are sick and tired of the MSM and they aren’t buying this load of crap. MSM credibility has dropped down to about a 32% credibility level. I frankly think that is still artificially high. One of the few things certain in life is that the MSM seldom gets it right about anything.

For example the MSM would have you believe that a black cop shooting a black thug waving a gun is a racist pig because he should have waited until the thug actually pointed the gun at him before firing. That is utter nonsense and about 68% of the population realizes this. The other 32% are glued to their TVs whenever CNN is on and they think Hillary is the most wonderful person ever to run for President of the United States.

This is why this election is so different. If you watched the MSM and you listened to the pundits, Hillary won the debate in a landslide. That is because the MSM doesn’t think minor Republican witch hunts like Hillary being extremely careless with classified documents are relevant. Of course they also think Hillary lying about Benghazi and the Clinton Foundation pay for play cash cow is equally irrelevant. They have no problem believing someone would really pay $250,000 to hear someone as boring as Hillary Clinton to repeat a Teleprompter speech, written by someone else, consisting primarily of outdated liberal clichés. But the average American is simply not that stupid.

The percentage of people who believe this nonsense, while very vocal and often glorified by the MSM is dwindling daily. Most people have given up on the MSM. They don’t watch CNN, NBC, CBS, MSCNBC, CNBC, NPR, ABC or even Fox News any more. Fox News is slightly better than the others, but by a very slim margin. Even Fox News is shredding viewers. We simply get our news somewhere else.

Real people listened to what Donald Trump actually had to say and they recognized something remarkable. Donald Trump is a real person and he actually answered questions. That may not necessarily be politically correct at times, and he is a little rough around the edges, but it is honest and a whole lot of people agree with him. I even heard one so-called conservative pundit complain that Trump didn’t understand the need to just ignore the question and deliver a well-rehearsed zinger. That type of comment explains how John McCain and Mitt Romney managed to achieve the near impossible task of getting beat in a debate by Barack Obama.

Donald Trump is the “anti-antidistablishmentarium” candidate in this election. A lot of people, who easily recognize all the baggage Trump brings to the process, understand this simple reality. The MSM doesn’t have a clue. The only way to generate real change is to bring in a real person who is ready, willing and able to simply ignore the establishment. At some point, Trump is bound to disappoint, because he is just as much a part of the establishment as every else, but he at least recognizes the problem. Hillary, on the other hand, doesn’t think there is a problem.

If you believe the MSM Trump lost the debate. But not everyone pays attention to CNN. In fact a whole lot of people don’t pay attention to CNN. The DailyMail UK did an excellent job of publishing all the other polls, not just CNN. Are they ALL wrong?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3809204/Most-snap-polls-Trump-winning-debate-landslide.html

Some polls that had very large samples all showed Trump winning. TIME had over 400,000 responses and Trump won 58% to 42%. Since TIME is not exactly a Republican rag, that surprised me. CNBC had over 220,000 responses and Trump won 51% to 49%. No one would accuse CNBC of being conservative. Fortune, which had over 430,000 responses, had Trump winning 51% to 49%.

Today CNN is “plaining” why these “internet” polls are all wrong. That would be more impressive if the CNN poll was not based on pure nonsense: Following is from the CNN/ORC website:

“Interviews with 521 registered voters who watched the presidential debate conducted by telephone (landline and cell) by ORC International on September 26, 2016. The margin of sampling error for results based on the total sample is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Survey respondents were first interviewed as part of a random national sample conducted September 23-25, 2016. In those interviews, respondents indicated they planned to watch tonight’s debate and were willing to be re-interviewed after the debate.

26% of the respondents who participated in tonight’s survey identified themselves as Republicans, 41% identified themselves as Democrats, and 33% identified themselves as Independents.”

That’s right, the CNN poll involved a whopping 521 people they were able to interview over the phone. But wait, it’s even worse than that. These are people already interviewed by CNN previously who agreed to watch the debate and get interviewed again. Every “pundit” agreed that Hillary won the debate because she was more aggressive in attacking Trump, yet these people thought that Trump attacked Hillary 56% of the time to her attacking him 33% of the time. This is a joke. Based on these demographics Hillary would have won that poll if she had thrown up on the podium.

We can expect a full court press by the MSM declaring Hillary the leader by a huge margin. They are going to try and convince everyone that a Hillary win in evitable. They need to do this to get all the Kool-Aid drinkers to vote and to trick the rest of us in to staying home. They may or not actually believe this, but they desperately want you to believe this. Incredibly some people on the left even criticized Lester Holt for being too easy on Trump. None of them get it. Trump is not just running against Hillary Clinton, he is running against MSM. Every time the MSM opens its’ blatantly biased mouth it just adds credibility to the Trump campaign. We are not necessarily sure about Trump, but we are absolutely positive about the credibility of the MSM. Hillary is fully capable of losing this election all be herself. If she continues to get this kind of support by the MSM, that loss could turn into a landslide.

TDM

The first debate is over. It was pretty much a hot mess. Neither candidate looked very presidential. At points I was embarrassed for both of them. We can assume that those people who are already solidly behind Hillary will continue to be solidly behind Hillary. We can also assume that those people who were solidly behind Trump will continue to be solidly behind Trump. The real question is whether either candidate moved the needle with regard to those who are undecided.

Holt started the debate by asking Hillary to brag about the great job growth during the last six years. Talk about a softball question. Hillary was not asked about her e-mails, Benghazi or the Clinton Foundation. The bias was beyond obvious. At times Holt was openly hostile toward Trump. However, this may have actually helped Trump, because it was so obvious. That was particularly true when Holt tried to claim that Trump supported the Iraq war and Trump slammed him with facts, proving Holt wrong. When Holt came close to accusing Trump of being a racist, Trump did not rise to the bait. While the vast majority of blacks will continue to support Hillary, Trump may actually have helped himself by pointing out that law and order is extremely important to minority communities.

I am sure many of the pundits will think Hillary won on points, but most pundits thought that Richard Nixon beat John Kennedy on points when they debated. If this was to be scored by college professors Hillary would win, but this isn’t being evaluated by college professors, it is being evaluated by the American people. I don’t think Hillary changed any minds. Donald Trump may have done exactly that.

Trump really hurt her with regard to the e-mails when he pointed out that all her staff was pleading the fifth. Some people think he missed a big opportunity later when he didn’t hammer her on cyber security. I am not sure that is accurate. I think he hurt her so bad earlier that he did not need to even bring this up again.

Trump just may have flipped the dial on the media fact checkers. He was brilliant in pointing out that it was Hillary’s campaign that started the birther movement when he looked into the camera and pointed out exactly when Hillary’s campaign manager admitted this during an interview on CNN. If the Hillary campaign was predicting this to be a “fact checking” bonanza where they proved that Donald Trump is a liar, he just may have turned that completely around.

Hillary was grossly unsuccessful in painting Trump as a racist. Whether you agree with him or not, he did not come across as a racist. When she hammered him on this tax returns he silenced her by saying he would release his tax returns when she released her 33,000 e-mails. Hillary literally did not have a response.

When she tried to present him as lacking the temperament to be President, he proved her wrong by being calm, cool and collected. He gave thoughtful responses and no one watching this is likely to be afraid of Donald Trump starting a nuclear war. If he accomplished nothing more than that, he scored big.

So, I think Hillary will be declared the big winner, but Trump is the one likely to move up in the polls. Hillary came into this debate near her personal ceiling and odds are higher that she will go down rather than up. Trump on the other hand came in as a big underdog who couldn’t hold his own. He didn’t even need to win, he just needed to survive.

Some people think that Trump needed to make people distrust Hillary. They are wrong. He didn’t need to explain to people why they shouldn’t trust Hillary. They already know that. It was far more important that he look capable. So Hillary won on points, but Trump is the one who will surge in the polls.

TDM

The Hillary camp, with the full throated endorsement of the MSM is desperately trying to paint Donald Trump as a serial liar.    Unfortunately, they have used this tactic before with great success.  Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath.  It was never a question of whether or not he lied; it was whether Democrats considered this to be important. They decided it didn’t matter because it was just about sex. He was later disbarred because of this lie, because the ABA did not agree.  It is indisputable that Clinton lied under oath.

When George W. Bush ran with the slogan that he would return honor to the White House, Democrats were outraged.   They had to find a way to paint George W. Bush as an even worse liar in order to justify their willingness to continue supporting Clinton.  This is why they promoted the theory that Bush lied about the WMD in Iraq.  It is why people were chanting that Clinton lied but no one died. But the reality is that George W. Bush did not lie at all.  Rarely in the history of the U.S. President have we so much documentation proving that a President was telling the truth.  Every single word spoken or written by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld was reviewed word for word by a Senate committee that could not find a single statement inconsistent with the intelligence.  The most they could claim was that Cheney and Rumsfeld may have occasionally relied too much on poorly sourced intelligence. Sadly, a high percentage of Americans still believe that Bush lied about the WMD in Iraq.  I really wish he had fought back against this, but he didn’t.  Sometimes taking the high road allows thieves and bandits to soar ahead on the low road.

Donald Trump has said things that outrage liberals.  The MSM likes to call any statement they don’t like to be a lie.  A classic example is when Trump said 58% of African American youths are not working.  He is right about that by the way, but Politico calls that a lie because they say the unemployment rate is ONLY 15.7% and Trump is including people who gave up looking for work.  Trump also included students who aren’t working.  In other words, Trump is telling the truth, but liberals call it a lie because they consider it to be misleading.

Even by this tortured definition, Hillary still lies just as much as Trump.  But the real problem is that Hillary tells very different lies.   Most people understand that while all lies matter, some lies matter more than others.  That is why no one is going to threaten you with jail time for claiming to be a better athlete in high school than other people remember.  However you can definitely go to jail for lying under oath about something material.  Hillary has flat out lied about sending classified e-mails on her private server and she has done it under oath before congress.  My prediction is that although the MSM can’t seem to understand the difference, the American people will not have that problem.

All Trump has to do tonight is look like he can act like an adult.  He doesn’t need to challenge Hillary about anything.  He just needs to look like what he is; an executive capable of being a leader who makes rational decisions.  Trump just has to be himself. Hillary, on the other hand has to give carefully crafted lines trying to explain why things that are obviously true are actually false.  Good luck with that.  It will get even worse if she gets off script and things could go entirely off the rails if she has some kind of health related episode.

For humor purposes, just think about this.  The debate will last for 90 minutes with no breaks.  Odds are that Hillary will not drink anything liquid for a long period prior to the debate.  This is to avoid looking like she is desperately in need of a potty break.  However, she frequently has coughing spells and if you believe her campaign, recently fainted because of overheating.  In other words someone in desperate need of staying hydrated is also in desperate need of not drinking too much liquid. This reminds me of the man who took long strides to reduce wear and tear on his $60 shoes and ended up splitting his $80 pants.

TDM

If you are a police officer and you are involved in any encounter with a black man, you are at risk. It doesn’t even have to be a black man. One recent case involved a sixteen year old black female. It doesn’t even matter if you are black. You are a cop. That is all that matters.

Suppose you encounter someone who appears to be high on something, like angel dust. That person is very aggressive and refuses to respond to commands. If you are smart, you will just back off; get in your patrol vehicle and leave. At best you will wait in your car and call for backup. You will make no attempt to arrest this person or even interfere with that they are doing. There is no possible good outcome for you. There is a significant risk that this person could seriously hurt you or someone else. However if you Taser this person, use pepper spray, fire your weapon or even use a choke hold, you will be putting yourself in legal jeopardy. At a minimum, you will lose your job. You will be vilified in the press. Colin Kaepernick will know your name and will be thinking of you as he disrespects our national anthem. The circumstances will not matter. It won’t even matter if you are also black. All that matters is that “excessive force” was used against a black suspect. That is the lesson of the riots in Charlotte.

The results will be devastating, for honest black citizens. Even liberals will quickly decide to avoid any place where black people live, work or play. It won’t be obvious at first, but the results will be there for anyone paying attention. Black neighborhoods will become increasingly black. White neighborhoods will become increasingly white. There will be fewer police, of any color, willing to work in black neighborhoods and black on black crime will skyrocket. There will be no shortage of cops, of any color, willing to work in white neighborhoods, where they are welcomed, even by liberals. Rich white liberals will move into safe enclaves where they can put up fences, road blocks and hire private security to keep the undesirables away. That security, by the way, will definitely be armed. Then they will concentrate on what is most important. How to blame this on George Bush?

TDM