Trump Failed

Trump forgot this message

Trump insisted on making the debate--and the after-story of the debate--about him.   He could have made it about jobs, homeland safety, and clearing the swamp.   But he didn't.   Trump has winning issues.   He doesn't present them.  

Trump's campaign and his friends at Breitbart know what is important.   When a person clicks on Breitbart.com up pops this advertisement.   It takes over the screen.   One has to find the "x" in the upper right to get to the website.   It is a unifying theme that would make sense of Trump's positions and resume and even his behavior.   Only an "out of the box" politician can question the whole system.   But Trump did not stick to draining the swamp of special interests, revolving door politicians, campaign finance, pay to play, and how that has created policies that damage regular Americans with bad trade deals, bad immigration policies, and bad foreign policy.   He could have won this election.

Instead, he made his temperament, once again, the issue.    He continued to sound like a bickering child.  He interrupted with "wrong" five times.   He interjected "such a nasty woman."  When Hillary said his reaction to every disappointment is to claim the contest is rigged, from the Iowa caucuses, to this election, and even to losing the Emmy.  Trump confirmed the point by interjecting, "I should have won it."   

MSNBC anchor:  "The big headline:  Will Trump contest the election."   

But this isn't just MSNBC, it is everywhere:  CNN, ABC, CBS, NY Times, and even the conservative press.   Trump made news, but it was the worst possible news for himself, a message of destruction rather than reform.   He said he might not consider an election loss legitimate.  Asked if he will accept the election results Trump said,  "I will look at it at the time."   And, "I will keep you in suspense."  

The story dominates the after-story.   Every other issue in the debate is secondary.

Even Trump's media friends lead with the story of "orderly and peaceful transfer of power".   Brit Hume of reliable Fox News in the spin room Wednesday night admitted it would be the lead.   Fox News panels after the debate discussed it from the point of view that the comment was controversial and it obscured the otherwise suburb Trump debate.   

Thursday morning Hume was proven right,  Here is the Fox News website splash page.

Meanwhile, Breitbart covers the story from the point of view of criticism of Trump by establishment Republicans who said Trump was destroying bedrock American values.

The after-debate story is all about Trump's temperament.  This is the centerpiece of Hillary Clinton's argument, that whatever problems may exist in America it remains that Donald Trump is not a plausible solution. 

Trump had a chance to make his message central and instead Trump made Hillary's message the central one.   It was a self-inflicted wound.

                                                       #   #   #
There is more.   Once a week I upload a podcast of a conversation and commentary created by me and Thad Guyer, an attorney who specializes in representing whistleblowing employees.  We talk about the current state of the race, the mainstream polls, the outlier poll, Trump's message, Hillary's weaknesses, Bill Clinton's past sins, former Sanders voters, the ghost of Nader, and more.   Check it out.

Click here for the current podcast