By Deplorable Andrew Allen
Bottom line, Trump’s debate performance in his first face off with Hillary Clinton was horrible. Not because his worldview is wrongheaded. He came across as inadequately prepared to put it mildly.
As the debate went on, and torturously on, for virtually every idiotic thing that spewed forth from Clinton’s mouth I was able to construct an intelligent rebuttal that immediately went up on social media. Had Donald Trump prepared himself for the debate, he could have done the same on stage.
A good starting point for the education of Mr. Trump on best debate practices would be to tune into C-Span, and watch Prime Minister’s question time in Parliament. In their form of government, each week Britain’s head of state – the Prime Minister – must go before Parliament and endure an often scathing series of question from his or her political opponents. We have no parallel in the American system.
For the pros and cons associated with Parliamentary question time, one fact is undeniable: the questions fired at the Prime Minister aren’t only well founded in facts, policy, and relevance, they also cut directly to the point in ways that resonate with an audience.
It would do Trump well to watch Prime Minister’s question time, and then adopt the same sort of approach rather than the rambling, petulant, incoherence he delivered during the debate. As but one simple example, when Hillary Clinton lied and said that violent crime was decreasing, all Trump had to do was cite the recent Justice Department report that revealed an 11% increase in violent crime:
“Secretary Clinton,” Trump could have begun, “didn’t you read the Justice Department’s report released last week which stated that violent crime was up 11%? Are your numbers incorrect or are you saying the Justice Department is lying?”
It’s that simple with any topic that comes up at the next debate. And, when the moderator tries to buy Hillary cover by pushing Trump on a non-issue (i.e., his tax returns, law suits from 1973, etc.), all Trump has to say is something to the effect of “we’ve discussed that topic at length in other forums so I’d like to get back to talking about issues that matter to the American people.”
The other bottom line is this: if Donald J Trump doesn’t tighten up his game, he isn’t moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January.
photo credit: Taken from Gage Skidmore Donald Trump & Mike Pence via photopin (license)
