NM NY 11 hours ago

The lack of self-awareness from Trump and Giuliani is staggering for them to eve
n think of using Bill Clinton s infidelities as a political attack on Hillary Clin
ton. Both men committed adultery and divorced repeatedly. Trump is an unrepentan
t skirt-chaser and Giuliani s wife found out he was ending the marriage via a news
conference. Giuliani s own children harbored great anger at him for his treatment
of their mother. So either man using the Clinton s marriage as an argument is as
hypocritical today as it was for Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde two decades ago.
Reply 2845Recommend
NYT Pick
Matt Madison, Wi 11 hours ago
Before the debates, the majority of commentators, who've seen a number of these
things before, pointed out that the general election debates are the best approx
imation we have for how a president will behave in office. In other words, we ca
n expect the way these candidates speak to each other on the debate stage to mir
ror how they will speak to other leaders at home and abroad, and if they lash ou
t, it will not be at the debate moderators, or merely with words, but with the f
ull force of the office of the president and the military they will command.
Reply 993Recommend
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Dan Portland, OR 11 hours ago
I understood the microphone problem immediately. The microphone was turned on, a
nd conveyed to the audience the words that Mr. Trump was saying, as if those wor
ds represented Mr. Trump's thoughts.
Reply 4597Recommend
NYT Pick
Rev. Jim Bridges Everett, WA 11 hours ago
Donald Trump appears to have severe difficulty accepting anything negative or cr
itical about himself. He instead chooses to blame any shortcoming on extraneous
factors, such as a malfunctioning microphone as opposed to his heavy breathing.
Then he goes one step further and suggests that it was done intentionally. That
is a good old fashioned example of paranoia. I'm sorry, he does not appear to be
psychologically fit to be President.
Reply 2110Recommend
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Patrick Borunda Washington 10 hours ago
If Republicans aren't hanging their heads in embarrassment then they have no sel
f-respect left.
Trump flatly denied saying things and doing things of which there are video reco
rdings in the public space. "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes
?"
He managed to be civil for fifteen minutes then starting flailing about more and
more strenuously until at the end he had produced an effectively incoherent wor
d salad. The microphone is the last thing Donald should be talking about this mo
rning.
By the way, Bill Clinton isn't running for president, Hillary Clinton is running
so Bill's marital infidelities are not an issue. Besides, if Trump opens that d
oor, Clinton surrogates will make hash of Donald's marital history.
Reply 1512Recommend
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Steve Machias, Maine 10 hours ago
It's amazing that comments on women and the name calling during the Republican P
rimaries, is seen by Donald Trump as normal and acceptable for an intelligent el
ectorate. And when in history we have sunk to name calling it has never made a b
etter America. Let's stick to ideas, and ideas that will solve America's problem

s. We're all ready great, let's not blow it!

Reply 627Recommend
NYT Pick
Al Galli Hobe Sound FL 10 hours ago
Lester Holt asked Trump 3 specific questions: Birther, women looks and one other
. He did not ask Clinton about Benghazi or emails or any of a host of possible p
ersonal questions. His questions of Trump were outside the stated scope of the d
ebate.
Reply 59Recommend
NYT Pick
Dominic Astoria, NY 10 hours ago
If he thinks a political debate is tough, I can't imagine how he'd whine after a
meeting with Putin, or Xi Jinping, or any other global leader. On the world sta
ge, you are not surrounded by toadies and sycophants.
For someone who has built his flimsy media image upon being such an aggressive,
"tough guy", Trump is really just a thin-skinned, short-tempered crybaby. Not to
mention all of the revolting sexism, racism, xenophobia, narcissism, cheating,
and endless greed that he embodies. He cares more about the places he "has prope
rty" than the lives of the Americans who live in those places.
Trump is inept, incompetent, and woefully unprepared for any serious position, l
et alone the Presidency of the United States. He is pathetic.
I could not be more proud of Secretary Clinton after last night's debate. She ha
s razor sharp intelligence and toughness. Not to mention, her decades of knowled
ge and experience make her the only Presidential candidate in our history, that
I can think of, who can walk into the Oval Office on day one and get the job don
e.
I'm looking forward to having Hillary Clinton as our next President. I'm With He
r.
Reply 2315Recommend
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Jerry S. Milwaukee, WI 10 hours ago
What makes this worse from Mr. Trump's perspective is that the debate was all no
t about each candidate playing to their faithful but instead each making a pitch
for the 10% to 15% of the voters who are still undecided and who will in the en
d determine who our next president is. The undecideds are people who are very tu
rned off by both candidates, and in the case of Mr. Trump the last thing that's
going to work on them is the kind of antics that have helped him amass the base
of voters he has so far. And so he was supposed to act "presidential," yet as th
ings didn't go well he has a meltdown and reverts back to his true self. Comment
ers here are saying this may be the end of the game. As a Hillary supporter I ho
pe that's true, but there's still a lot of time to go, and I'm sure Donald's han
dlers will try to right his ship. Or will they totally spin out of control? (e.g
, Dwell on Bill's' infidelity?)
Reply 388Recommend
NYT Pick
swiftnyc new york 9 hours ago
Trump says that Lester Holt was biased ... against HIM? I almost lost my voice t
rying to get Holt to hear me through the television screen, yelling at him to st
op Trump from interrupting Hillary, from being rude, from hogging the air time.
I felt Holt was MUCH softer on Trump, letting him off the hook on things - e.g.,
when Holt, at the end of the section on race, began asking a question with some
thing like "what would you do to heal...", and Trump didn't even let him finish

before he was bellowing about God-knows-what. And Holt just sat there and took i
t! He didn't tell Trump to listen to the question, much less answer it. Every ti
me Trump shouted him down, Holt let him. HE was the moderator. (But he did tell
Hillary, more than once, that her time was over, even though she lost valuable s
econds being interrupted by the mean kid with ADHD; I'd love to see a comparison
of talking time between Trump and Hillary. Trump took more than his fair share
- surprise! - and Holt let him.)
I felt like the bully was in charge - and despite the fact that the odds were, y
et again, stacked against her, Hillary held her own.
And as for stamina - she didn't even stop to take a drink of water. Trump was gu
lping it down like Marco Rubio.
Reply 1196Recommend
NYT Pick
Mark South Philly 9 hours ago
I'm not a Trump supporter, but I admire his courage. HRC seemed very polished an
d poised, while Trump seemed a little in over his head. I'm not sure I've seen a
nyone step in to a completely new field the way he has and been so effective. Qu
ite inspiring, even if I disagree with his politics.
Reply 38Recommend
NYT Pick
Bob CT 9 hours ago
For me, a male white baby boomer who has voted for Barak Obama in both previous
election and has never regretted it, the saddest moment in the debate was when t
he (in my opinion) poorly worded question regarding race was posed. Both candidate
s, starting with Clinton chose to frame the issue around issues of law enforcement
, crime, poverty and struggling inner cities . Okay I m white and therefore can t really
speak for African Americans, but must ask am I the only person who found the whole
subject of race being reduced (by both candidates) to the issue of how our nation
collectively manages criminality and poverty to be beyond cringe-worthy? As if r
ace equals black which equals criminal / poor . Is that what our national conversation
on race come down to? There are lots of articles today about Trump s lying, sexism,
bullying, manterrupting all to be expected but I found both candidate s answers to th
e race question to be clear groan-worthy examples of white people addressing (frig
htened OR sympathetic yet still clueless) white people about black people.
I, for one, am really going to miss Obama.
Perhaps I should just wait for Charles Blow can set me straight on this.