Donald Trump just got roughed up, and badly, by a girl. On Monday night, at the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton made her opponent look ignorant, unprepared, egotistical, childish, petulant, impatient, and at times totally incoherent.
How bad did it get? At one point, as Trump was groping blindly across the minefields of foreign policy, losing a foot here and a leg there, he announced, apropos of nothing, that “I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament.” Clinton smiled sweetly and exclaimed, “Whew, OK!” The audience at Hofstra University, sternly instructed to remain silent throughout the debate, ignored the rules and burst into laughter.
They were laughing at you, Donald, not with you.
Clinton then patiently explained the importance of honoring international agreements, such as the NATO treaty, to a man who seemed not to grasp the concept of the nation’s word being its bond. One hopes her reassurances were enough to coax allies in Berlin, Tokyo, Seoul and other capitals down from the ceiling.
The 90-minute encounter, moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, was less a debate than a beat-down. Clinton obviously had put in many hours of preparation. Trump apparently decided to wing it — and while this approach worked well during the Republican primaries, when nobody got much time to speak and pithy one-liners could win the day, it bombed in a one-on-one clash where there was no place to hide.
