The First Presidential Debate Between Donlad and Hillary

September 28, 2016

By Saeed Qureshi

The first presidential debate between the Republican nominee Donlad Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was held on September 26,2016 at New York’s Hofstra University. It was moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt. It lasted for 90 minutes.

The second debate is scheduled for October 9,2016 at Washington University in St. Louis. The third and the last would come off on October 19, 2016 at University of Nevada Las Vegas. The American presidential election would be held on November 8, 2016.

Altogether, six main questions were asked by the moderator from both the presidential nominees. The questions were about immigration, economy, trade, jobs, racism, law and order, the foreign affairs and the security of the United States.

There were also peripheral, additional questions by way of explanation of the main questions. Most subsidiary questions were addressed to Donlad Trump. The questions asked in the first debate are already known to the Americans public.

Prior to the debate, Hillary in her emails to her supporters hinted at her being nervous.  Yet she looked steady and relaxed.  There was a flair and freshness in her answers with a smile and occasional grin on her face.

Despite recent health setback, Hillary seemed physically strong with a voice resonating with vibrancy and assertion. She kept her cool and didn’t retaliate or respond with a matching accusative temperament and raising her voice as her contender did many a time.

She portrayed herself with a reservoir of information and abundance of statistics to beef up her former policies and actions taken as the 67^th secretary of state from 2009 t0 2013. During this period, as she disclosed in her rebuttal, she toured 102 countries and inked several scores of agreements. She gracefully accepted her mistake of using her private computer for emailing of thousands of emails both classified and unclassified.

Donald Trump raised the issue of inept handling by Hillary as secretary of State during the anti-Qaddafi revolution in Libya. He held her responsible for the attack on Ben-Ghazi American Mission and the death of the American ambassador along with three other colleagues at the hands of the hooligans.

In the hindsight one may reckon that the attack could not be prevented even by the best of the strategists. Obviously it was a spontaneous outburst. The Qaddafi government was itself in the eye of the colossal upheaval resulting in the humiliating death of president Qaddafi and takeover of power by the divergent groups.

Her long tenure in the government started from being the first lady during her husband Bill Clinton’s presidency (January 1993- 2001). She was a senator for 8 years (2001-2009). During the first presidential term of President Obama, she was Secretary of State for four years (2009-2013).

 All this invaluable experience brought her a favorable outcome of the first debate. The visible victory in the first debate might give her more confidence to be vigorous and assertive in the coming two debates.

She might display more eloquence and articulation to splash her policies and objectives. If elected as the president of the United States, she would make history as being the first female president of the United States.  Thereafter, she would be able to implement her vision and goals.

During the debate, Donald Trump seemed to be rowdy, evasive and sarcastic, occasionally making faces and twisting his lips and eyes. He would even interject his remarks while Hillary was speaking. All these gestures were reflective of his nervousness and paucity of logical finesse and adequate trail of international affairs as well as of the United states.

The main emphasis of Donald Trump was to put a stop to the jobs being given to or filled by the foreign workers. But its indeed a dilemma because what mechanics could be invented to stop offshore jobs and working from the home when technology provides such facilities and options.

The jobs and businesses being transferred to other countries or non-Americans coming to United States are not at the cost of the local manpower. A huge number of overseas or offshore industries and enterprises are owned by the American businessmen and investors and not by the Chinese for instance. 

It should be expected of Donlad Trump that in the coming debates, he would be better prepared and equipped with adequate knowledge about the political history of the United States as well as the world at large. He should harness his debating skills, sharpen his style and heighten his deftness in such highly crucial debates to prove who was the most suitable candidate to preside over the United States

Of late Donald Trump has announced to disclose president Clinton’s sex pursuits which he refrained from in the first debate taking the plea that he didn’t do so as Clinton’s daughter Chelsea was also present among the audience. That was indeed a commendable gesture and   must be admired.

But the somersault on this tricky issue shows how mercurial and slippery he tends to be about his pledges and promises.  It is to be seen how Hillary is going to counter that distasteful situation and to beat off the attempt of her unpredictable rival aiming at washing the dirty linen about Clinton in the public. That might bring considerable damage to the current upbeat standing of Hillary Clinton.