Donald Trump came in with a preexisting condition, that of failure to communicate at the first debate against Hillary Clinton.
Last night in St. Louis he was given a second chance to go strong where earlier he had been weak in pointing out Clinton’s flaws, among them her soft approach to Islamic terror. Over the weekend Wikileaks revealed that she favored open trade and open borders.
This was where Trump had his opening to double down on his call to build walls against infiltrators who bring with them Islamic terror along with BDS and anti-Semitism. Within the past 24 hours two Israelis were murdered and more wounded in Jerusalem at the hands of jihadists.
That placed Trump in a perfect spot to further his cause against Radical Islam that affects everyone, everywhere. He took control.
He said, “We have to be able to name the problem – radical Islam. We can’t let people in we know nothing about.”
Clinton said, “I agree we need to take care of who enters this country.” But the rest of what she said amounted to gibberish. Likewise the rest of night.
He had facts. He had substance. She had political clichés.
Trump arrived a wounded man. Caught on tape debasing women (in 2005) in the most vulgar terms, Trump found himself cornered from Clinton and even from members of his own party. Even before the slugfest at this Town Hall setting, some GOP heavyweights demanded he drop out.
Clinton said, “Now we know who we are.”
Trump said, “Mine were words. Not action, like your husband’s.” He accused Bill Clinton of going beyond groping.
Gradually, the forced devil-may-care smile dissolved from Hillary’s face.
On infidelity and political backstabbing, Trump could have borrowed the line from Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” — –
“We’re both part of the same hypocrisy, senator, but never think it applies to my family.“
But the entire campaign, at either end, is in turmoil. Clinton is on the hook from a tape that shows her two-faced, one side private, the other side for the public.
She is, after all, a pal of Wall Street. This is a complete turn of what she’s been saying to fellow Liberals.
Last night she tried to explain, but most of it was standard political-speak and Trump walloped her on this, too.
Trump was supposed to be on the ropes. But he immediately turned on her by going straight to her email scandal – and for the rest of the night she never recovered. Trump was sharp, specific and on target throughout. He had her squirming on Benghazi, on Iran, on Syria, on Iraq, all of which he called a disaster, and which he blamed on her and Obama.
“She has bad judgment,” Trump said. “She should never be president of the United States.
Back to her destroying 33,000 of her emails, “People go to jail for something like that,” Trump said.
“Go to my website,” was just about all Clinton could say.
From the start, the trap was set. Let Hillary do her part. Then let the news media do the rest to Get Trump and hand the prize to Clinton on a silver platter. Last night it did not work. Trump was masterful and fully in control, on race, the economy, the coal industry, foreign affairs, taxes and the Supreme Court.
Day and night The Washington Post, The New York Times and the establishment networks led with Trump and his blunder of the day. The fix was in. The news media went to war and the enemy was Donald Trump. But Trump had the best of it for the full 90 minutes.
In advance of the debate, only Fox News provided coverage fair and balanced. But Megyn Kelly could not resist cueing a Robert De Niro tirade against Trump.
Last night Trump took charge and after all was said and done, his own scandal of the moment was put to rest, at least until the media pick it up again.
“I admit. I’m not perfect. But I tell the truth. She lies.”
Whenever she tried to trap him, as with his reluctance to release his tax returns, he immediately shifted to her failures while she was secretary of state.
But the mainstream media will surely continue to harp on his failings (“I admit. I’m not perfect. But I tell the truth. She lies.”) because the media will never let Trump escape with a win – and a rousing win it was against all expectations from friends and foes.
The media can pick any man out of a crowd and always find something to ruin him.
For this voter, the latest about Trump’s lewdness against women is a tough one to take. It is sickening. So sickening that moment-to-moment we verge on changing our minds. The scale keeps tipping in either direction. But, warts and all, he remains the choice to solve so many of our problems.
Trump’s flaws are personal. Clinton’s flaws are national and universal. In the view of many, she corrupts everything she touches, most recently even the FBI.
She’s had more than three decades to solve America’s problems, and failed, and failed again to correct the blight brought on by Obama over the past eight years.
“Where was she these past 30 years?” Trump asked rhetorically.
Trump has sinned but he is redeemable. He is a proven business leader. Clinton is irreversible.
She has sinned but shows no signs of being anything but a political egomaniac, in the game only for herself and her cronies. Hillary Clinton has been after the job all her life, whereas Trump remains a late-coming applicant for the White House. Trump remains a work in progress.
To win he will have to want the job as badly as she does. That remains to me seen. But last night he was a man with the goods.
He was even quick with an ad lib, when on the topic of speaking on both sides of her mouth she mentioned something about Lincoln doing likewise, Trump quipped:
“Now she uses Lincoln to lie about her lies.”
The thing is this —
Hillary Clinton REALLY wants this job. Outside of politics she has no life. With Trump it’s different. Either way he’ll go on.
Even a hurricane won’t stop her. She asked Florida officials to extend the deadline for voter registration in view of the storm that would deter sign-ups.
Last night’s debate was a clear triumph for Donald Trump. But to win our hearts and minds, the battle is not between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The battle is between the shrewd, cunning and deceitful news media and the rest of America.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
Donald Trump in the second debate exposed Hillary for what she is a traitor and an inept elected official who abused her position and violated the American peoples trust. The crimes, fraud and lies committed by Hillary Clinton and her husband is a travesty. Donald Trump is not a politician, what he did is talk. The Clinton’s actually did it. Actions speak louder than words.
What Hillary Clinton did with the 33,000 emails and lying to Congress is an offense that must be investigated by an independent prosecutor and charges must be brought against her for violating her oath of office and abusing the trust of the American people. As a lawyer who is disbarred she should know better. If any criminal admits his mistake, does that absolve him of the crime or the Jail sentence, why should Hillary Clinton get a pass. No one is above the law.
YJ Draiman
the TOI has really become a leftist shill for the democrats
citng eric holder the crook of fast and furious
citing klugman the dem party stooge
of special interest though, and very telling is the Bush clan stooges trashing trump.. I am sure they are working with the dems to depose trump… after all they worked well with them on Iran to lift the sanctions, well with them on the TPP to fire american workers, and very well with them on the flood of migrants.
bush is likely the biggest candidate for jail time in the USA but his control of the CIA blackmail files will not allow it
I am sure he orchestrated the jump ship GOP this week as all his stooges lost the primary. We have got to rid the nation of the two party crooks.
I received this link in an email from the tea party network, I was shocked to find that their only summary of the debate was from the leftist NPR and that the page only contained links and videos from leftist sources
so much for the so called conservatives
Ted Belman Said:
the real independents and undecided outside the dem party are the conservative, establishment GOP who might not vote and real independents unaffiliated
Independents are a tossup they are likely turned off by trumps behavior, arrogance, MO, and lack of detail in his policies.. they dont want to vote for hillary but trump turns them off. Many might not vote. I think that Trumps policies in general would appeal to them if they were presented by a non estab GOP who was likeable and a bit watered down on the “bigot” issues. I think more who vote will go trump because independents likely are less touchy feely and more related to issues and agenda. His lack of policy detail hurts here. However, on many of those issues one must first have the real facts from within gov to be able to make an accurate assessment of the situation. Solutions come from accuratley assesing the problem which requires the real facts.
Ted Belman Said:
Serial chronic thief, liar, crook, spy, sociopath forced to treat narcissistic bully like an equal
FIFY
Im ok with a narcissistic bully
Ted Belman Said:
an excellent observation
who are the ones that are undecided:
perhaps the largest group are the bernie dems
If trump can just get these people so disgusted with hillary crimes, which they already beleived with bernie, that they dont vote at all perhaps that is all he needs from them as the dems big worry is getting their own participants out to vote. The GOP dumping trump would actually help that
blue collar reagan dems
Hammering at the TPP, loss of jobs, firing of american workers can help them vote for trump or stay home
white collar dems
Trump needs to bring out the firing of american white collar jobs in silicon valley and the recent firing of 800 accountants at McDonalds with the hiring of their indian replacements en mass. Trump needs to show that nothing is in place to protect them and that it reaches to the white collar.
Blacks
Few will likely vote for Trump but if he can keep exposing enough pro trump blacks that can help. I notice no black leaders getting upset about his 12 year ago vulgarity. Perhaps this will even help trump to seem more real contrasted to Hillary polished repetitive BS that they have been hearing forever. Perhaps he can get more of them to stay home.
the greatest real damage to Trump comes from the Bush GOP estblishment who are willing to work with hillary and have worked since the beginning against Trump. They have seized every opportunity and appeared to be ready to jump ship every time. They do have their own constituencies whom they get with hypocritical platitudes while they push everything to fire american workers.
Trump is likely to focus on target marketing to specific groups to get them to stay home or vote for him. He does not have to worry about his base as they have already decided, like me, that trump in a monkey suit is better than hillary and the crooks. Trump has a lot to learn, he does not really understand the libya, syria situation… but he suspects something stinks when he says that we do not know who the rebel jihadis are that we arm. I am confidant that if he gets in and finds out the real facts he will pivot or change to a sensible common sense solution without covering up the change of mind. He is very pro Israel and very pro Jew unlike so many Jews… that is a bonus but I wonder if Israelis would take the opportunity of trump to run the anti semites from the land, massively settle jews, take the homeland. I would trust Trump for Israel more than the Jews with heads in clouds and foreign judenraat bribes.
All the MSM call Clinton the winner and use pejorative terms for Trump. Yes, Trump landed a lot of punches which his based liked. Thus polls on Drudge and Breitbart were overwhelmingly in favour of Trump winning.
Bu the question is did he move the needle? Did he attract the undecideds or independents to his side? That’s the real measure of whether he won.
Frank Luntz was surprised when his focus group of such people said Trump was the winner and for them, he moved the needle.
JPOST is decidedly turning left. Their headline today is Clinton forced to treat narcissistic bully like an equal
Hillary didn’t answer any of Trump’s challenges. Instead she weakly characterized them as “all lies” and went on to offer more blah blah.