2016 Sept 23^rd

On Sept 23^rd I mislabeled that day’s blog “Sept 24^th” so now on Sept 24^th I’ll do a blog labeled Sept 23^rd. I hope that’s perfectly clear to everyone. I have no excuse for the mistake; Sept 23^rd is my 89.5 birthday but I doubt that is to blame; it’s more likely the associated cortical shrinkage.

The debate on Monday the 26^th dominates the political discussion today…at least once we leave the Tulsa/ Charlotte assassinations behind. (It is very dangerous for black men, or women, to be driving their own cars south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but then I’m not sure walking is safer. Treyvon Martin was killed while walking in the wrong neighborhood by a self-styled community guardian.)

CNN has scheduled a discussion of the debate to begin at 6 o’clock Monday evening. That’s three hours before the 90 minute long debate. What will they talk about to fill that three hour time slot? The TV moguls must be sure that there will be lots of “eyeballs” eager for three hours of commentary before the real thing begins. I’ve heard they expect close to 100 million debate watchers. That many viewers could command quite an ad premium and the money is what this is all about as far as the TV networks are concerned, so the earlier they start coverage the more money they make.

Trump has made three to four TV appearances every week for many months. The networks have been there to cover these events because Trump is sufficiently unpredictable that something newsworthy might happen; it usually does. This TV coverage of Trump’s events costs the Trump campaign nothing and on each occasion Trump vilifies Hillary Clinton; he refers to her as “Crooked” Hillary. He lies about her record and these lies are repeated every time Trump faces any sort of gathering. He also pushes the notion that the country is on the verge of collapse and that only he can save it. Both of these are lies as well.

We have known for a long time that if you hear something repeated often enough you will come to believe it.  The result is that Trump’s repeated comments about “Crooked” Hilary have had the effect of lowering the public’s perception of Clinton’s trustworthiness. This has been helped, obviously, by Clinton’s own clumsiness with her private server email problems. Fox News is also willing to hammer away at the Crooked Hillary handle. Fortunately, many voters don’t care overmuch about Clinton’s emails. The undecided voters are those who haven’t been influenced by the emails or by Benghazi and Trump is unlikely to appeal to them.