2016 Oct 10^th

The second debate is history and that’s a good thing too! It is hard to believe that these are the two top candidates for the job held by some of our previous presidents. Naturally, everyone wants to know who won; that depends on whom you ask. A CNN/ORC poll gives Clinton 57 percent to Trump’s 34 percent. Other polls have the race closer and surely, a careful search will turn up a poll that has Trump on top.

Trump even went so far as to invite four women, three of whom had accused Bill Clinton of various sexual offences. They were Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Wiley and Paula Jones. Kathy Shelton had been raped and Hilary Clinton had been assigned to defend her rapist who pled to a lesser charge. Trump hoped that the appearance of these women at the debate would rattle Hillary Clinton. That didn’t work very well because many people saw it as a cheap trick and Hillary didn’t seem concerned about their presence.

Trump wanted to seat them in Trump’s VIP family section where they would be very close to Bill Clinton but Fred Fahrenkoph, the debate co-chair, told Trump’s people that if they did that security would escort the women out of the building. Now Trump wants this official removed before the next debate. Maybe Trump is laying the groundwork for refusing to show for the third debate.

It doesn’t matter who won the debate because the voters who have been polled on their preference are moving even more in Clinton’s direction. An NBC/WSJ poll taken after the smutty tape release, but before the debate, has Clinton beating Trump by 11 points, 46 percent to 35 percent among likely voters. Among all registered voters it’s even more lopsided, at 52 percent for Clinton and 38 percent for Trump. These polls were taken before the debate but it is unlikely that the results would change much after watching the performances of the principles.

Mike Pence, the apparently reluctant Trump running mate, has surfaced in North Carolina with a full-throated endorsement of Trump. This is in spite of their disagreement on what we should do about Russia’s role in the Syrian massacres. Forgetting Russia for the time being, Pence, although admitting that the Trump sex tapes were inexcusable, is now, after Trump’s debate performance, willing to do some excusing. Pence casts this in terms of “forgiveness,” a major part of the Christian canon. He pushes mighty hard for Trump’s forgiveness because he claims that he is contrite and has apologized.

 A necessary condition for Christian forgiveness is the sinner’s sincere contrition, or sorrow for having committed the act in question. We hear none of that from Trump, who really just forgives himself by saying that this was just “locker room talk” and that while golfing with Bill Clinton he had heard far worse. Trump is really saying to those who were offended by his comments, “Get over it. I’m just me being me.” He is absolutely right about that.