Blog 4: Debates

Debates usually have a winner and a loser that is portrayed through the media coverage. Donald trump throughout the presidential campaign was closely watched especially when on the debate stage. Donald Trumps debate style was more unconventional comparatively speaking to previous presidential candidates. The speech I chose to analyze was the final debate between democratic candidate Hilary Clinton and republican candidate Donald Trump.

Within this speech Donald Trump was successful in his ability to project short bite sized and persuasive rhetoric. He often times in many debates uses vague and short phrases to excite the audience without really revealing too much substance to his thoughts on the issues. This can be frustrating for some, but for others his ability to distract with his words was mesmerizing. Trump also according to some was successful in his ability to comeback with witty phrases and in some instances bully others by interrupting and speaking over them. I personally do not see this as a success, however when the media depicts who wins or loses these are the moments that gain the most attention. Trump is also very quick on his toes and easily diverts attention away any negative swings others take at him. Not in this debate, but in the primary elections there is one instance where Jeb Bush criticizes Trump’s character and Trump precedes to make the blanket statement that 9/11 was George Bush’s fault (brother to Jeb and 43^rd US president). He seems to have no limits to what he will do or say in a debate. The Trump debates were some of the most watched debates in US history.

Unfortunately Donald Trump did not reflect others in a positive or even humane way. In this specific speech he calls Hilary the infamous phrase of the campaign, a ‘nasty woman’. He has been many times in other debates extremely critical of candidates past and their appearance, which has no bearing on their potential success. He in this specific speech called Hilary’s campaign sleazy, and he spews negativity and tries to turn the tables on his history of disrespecting women as fictional comparatively speaking to Clinton’s narrative of deleting 33,000 emails as not fictional.

As Donald Trump’s campaign advisor I would suggest him to talk more specifically to the issues and his details in his plans. The vague explanations do attract a certain type of demographic, however if he had more substance to his debate style more people would take him seriously as a candidate. I would also urge Trump to spew less hate towards others. I understand that some things in debates come out as a way to slander someone and their character, however it might have been more beneficial for him to remain more civil in these arguments in order to show the American people he is not as ruthless as most people think.

The issues that should have been touched on greater by Trump were women’s rights, taxes, and his plan to fight ISIS. He does touch a lot on his immigration plan, but that plan is so controversial that I don’t think his extensive echoes of building a wall helped him in any way. He has had some issues with respect towards women so I think during the debates would have been a good time to talk about the gender inequities and be sincere to the woman population which controls more than 50% of the US votes. Taxes would have been a good issue to discuss more because people have a lot of expectations from Trump in respect to his background as a businessman. Also ISIS is an issue and a threat to all American people, this is not a party issue but rather a people issue. Foreign policy is always important during campaigns, people want to know how the future leader will protect the nation from terrorist threats.

Trump’s debate performance during this campaign cycle was passionate and fiery, he was aggressive and pounced at any opportunity to criticize others and divert negative attention away from himself and his platform. The media fed off of Trump’s unconventional bullying and it was perceived as a successful tactic in many regards.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/19/the-final-trump-clinton-debate-transcript-annotated/?utm_term=.b26f99f0cdb5#annotations:10671219