2016 Sept 26^th

Today, as everyone who does not live under a bridge knows, is the day of the first of three presidential debates. (Of course, if you did live under a bridge you might not give a damn about the presidential debates.)

The very latest polls have the contestants nearly even although the average gives a slight edge to Clinton but not by enough to be encouraging. Indeed the trend is not encouraging for her at all.

There has been much debate about the role of the debate moderator: In particular should he do any “on the spot” fact checking of the candidate’s assertions. The Trump folks vigorously oppose such fact checking. Their opposition does not oppose it and that is hardly a surprise; fact checking Donald Trump would stop the debate in its tracks.

Kellyanne Conway, the Trump queen of duck ‘n’ dodge, was on Morning Joe today and it was plain to see why she is so highly touted. Trump had commented about the moderator for tonight’s debate, the black journalist, Lester Holt, whom Trump referred to as a Democrat. This reference presumably helped reinforce Trump’s complaint the he is treated “unfairly.” Mark Halperin also appearing on Morning Joe pointed out that Lester Holt was a Republican and asked Conway why Trump would lie about Holt’s party affiliation. Conway’s duck ‘n’ dodge began at once but Halperin, an unflappable presence, just persisted. Conway finally admitted that Trump simply didn’t know what party Holt belonged to and therefore wasn’t really lying. Technically, she may be right; if you assert something you know to be false, that is a lie; if you assert something about which you are ignorant, that is just typical Trump.  I wonder if he’ll try that tonight.

Much is made by the commentariate about the importance of this debate; well, maybe. There have been plenty of Trump gaffes and none seems to have injured his candidacy. Gary Johnson the Independent Party candidate didn’t seem to know what Aleppo was; then to demonstrate that being inarticulate wouldn’t stop him from debating effectively he stuck his tongue out at Kasie Hunt in a gesture seen by many as simply obscene, and at least temporarily startling Ms. Hunt. Johnson has also claimed that because the sun will expand in a few billion years to swallow the earth, eventual global warming is inevitable and we should restart our coal-fired generators.

Mr. Johnson still, after these gaffes, still draws about 10 to 12 percent of the vote. I doubt that anything that happens tonight will change the balance of power in the major contest.