- It's clear to me that the Donald has decided since many in the media and even the GOP leadership have become hostile to him, that he'll run his campaign the way he likes it: the Donald vs. the Machine (e.g. the media and the Establishment). Throw out all the rules of common discourse and normal campaign tactics. In short, the Donald says "Bring it on!"
- The Donald, in that vein, was quite effective in persecuting his case against Hillary. Everyone knew that he had to answer the question regarding the lewd comments in the 2005 Access Hollywood video. He effectively quickly deflected it by apologizing and pivoting to all the issues that dog Hillary such as her emails, Benghazi, the rise of ISIS and her untrustworthiness. He also set up his defense by trolling the media to attend a press conference where alleged victims of Bill and Hillary, which took away from the effectiveness of Hillary taking the moral women high ground. How do I know, look at this picture:
That's just Bill, it also looked to me that during the debate that Hillary did not look as on her game as she did in the first debate.
- Hillary was much more defensive through much of this debate. Apparently she does not do well in town hall formats for she does not connect well personally with voters and is much more likely to act defensively when a hostile question comes her way. Many times the best she could do was give a smile or smirk. However, perhaps it's just me, but whenever she did that her excessive lipstick really made that smile/smirk seemed forced. The Donald did much to keep on the defensive through aptly pivoting every question about him into an attack on her.
- In short, I think the Donald did what he had to: stabilize his own campaign and start changing the narrative away from focusing on him and more on Hillary. However, he still has a long way to go if he's going to win this race. His performance has enthused his base, which is quite important right now. However, I'm starting to think that his best shot to win this race is not to convince swing voters to vote for him so much as getting folks who haven't voted before so fired up about Hillary's political opportunism, ambition and acts of corruption that they will show up to the polls. Such a strategy was key to the success of Brexit where Britain voted itself out of the European Union, defying the political polls.
- I would like to note that the polls currently on average have the Donald behind by 5 or more points. Many of the Donald's supporters say that the polls are unreasonably skewed favorably to voters favorable to Hillary. I'm of the view that the polls are generally accurate for the folks they sample. Party identification is an attitude, not a demographic, so it can change over time. The polls were generally right in 2012, 2008 and 2004. So unless they are proven wrong, we should consider an average of them that use rigorous scientific methods.
- Finally, the time has come for me to make a decision. On Friday, October 14, I will head down to cast my vote. I will let you know who I voted for and my reasons after I cast my decision.
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