So last night in Las Vegas, the 2 major party candidates for President of the United States faced off in their 3rd and final debate. I watched it and kept something of a running diary, adding tweets for live reactions from pundits and jokers and regular people watching at home. We had “Bad Hombres” and “Such a nasty woman.” Did I include too much Andrew Sullivan? Maybe. He’s lost his fastball and it’s probably good he’s not blogging any more. But I don’t care. I love him and he’s probably one of biggest reasons I do what I do (which is make dick jokes on the internet). Also, if you want to know who won the debate?
Why didn’t Hillary Clinton announce that she was inappropriately given the debate questions – she secretly used them! Crooked Hillary.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2016
All times are Central, and may not be exact because I was watching on a slight delay after having put the kids to bed.
oh shit hillary showed up in the all-white tupac suit the debate is over pic.twitter.com/mdpPQUapla
— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) October 20, 2016
8:00pm: Well either my TV’s color is off or Trump is less orange, but his answer on the Supreme Court is to bitch about what RBG said about him. It’s funny to me that the only other person she’s taken shots at is Colin Kaepernick.
Okay for real though, Chris Wallace is hands down the best moderator. Good questions about the Supreme Court, guns, Roe vs. Wade. Trump doesn’t know how anything works, so his answers are nonsense, but he’s sedate and he seems to have stopped sniffing so that’s good.
Here is what is so fucking stupid about these things. Hillary knows things. Trump doesn’t. But it doesn’t matter, because people who should know better write dumb things like this:
9:18 p.m. Clinton gives a strong answer on late-term abortions. It’s a losing argument for Clinton but her answer defending women against government intervention was as effective as such an answer can be. Advantage Trump. (emphasis added)
This doesn’t make any sense. Andrew Sullivan’s blog had one of the most moving, humane discussions on late-term abortions after George Tiller was murdered. If you can read these and still say asinine things “rip it out 4 days before it’s born” then…man, I can’t even. Anyway you’d think Sully would at least link to that instead of glibly writing “advantage Trump.”
On immigration, did he just say out loud that Obama has been deporting people? So wait, I thought we were losing our country because of Obama’s “amnesty.” And he said “Bigly” twice.
8:40pm: Jesus Christ.
Hillary ::outlines a specific plan for education & college debt
Trump: We’re gonna… do a lot of… things #debatenight— Grace Parra (@GraceParra360) October 20, 2016
Andrew Sullivan is projecting again:
9:38 p.m. God she’s turning off people now. I know she’s offering substance. But she’s droning on and on. She had a chance to offer a fresh, clear message on the economy. And she wonked it.
“Wonked it?”
9:00pm: So Obama and Hillary are causing the violence at Trump’s rallies. And Hillary’s campaign is forcing women to accuse him of grabbing their pussies.
Trump says, “Nobody has more respect for women than I do.” The crowd laughs.
Yes, the system that has literally never favored women is now suddenly rigged for a woman. #debatenight
— Mike (@mijamtweets) October 20, 2016
Trump is refusing to say he’ll respect the results of the election, something that is literally unprecedented. Richard Nixon conceded, even though he had a legit beef. Al Gore had an absolute beef and he conceded.
9:25pm: Trump is doing his “Wrong,” thing. He sounds exactly like Alec Baldwin’s impression. He’s smirking and licking his lips.
GERMANY 1926-This little fella from Austria is a terrble writer but at least the kids are reading pic.twitter.com/mWcXcNwc8j
— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) October 20, 2016
Anyway, that happened. Trump ended by calling Hillary “Such a nasty woman.” Even Andrew Sullivan came around at the end:
10:36 p.m. In my view, this was easily the most decisive debate. She devastated him. He melted down. His refusal to accept the results of this election disqualifies him automatically from any office in the United States. There were several areas where he was utterly incoherent, grasping at “facts”, without any understanding of policy. His personal foulness emerged.
It seems to me he also has internalized that he has lost this election. May God save this democracy from him.
I know that Trump’s apocalyptic rantings about rigged elections and some of his supporters claims that a Hillary victory could lead to civil war are causing a lot of people to stress out. And I get it. But there is this: I voted this morning (early voting started yesterday in Tennessee). I went down to the elections office and got in line. That’s right, there was a line, this far out from the election. And it was a diverse group of people: older folks, younger folks, men and women, black people and white people. Everyone was in a good mood, doing their civic duty. The poll workers were friendly and professional and helpful, walking people through the ballot and how to work the machine. And I know that I live in an area that is most likely going for Trump. But there was no intimidation, no weirdness, and maybe that’s why. People were talking to each other in line (not about politics, they were talking about sports and grocery shopping and their kids.
It was pleasant. The system was working. Regular people, doing the little things to make their community a better place.
And I hope your experience is as pleasant as mine was.
