Just shy of a decade has elapsed since I last judged a round at a sanctioned debate tournament. Having competed in both parliamentary and policy debate formats at the high school and collegiate level, I obtained a sample ballot for a parliamentary debate (my preferred format) round for yesterday’s main event: the first Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
My intention was that it would provide me with a sensible framework within which to render an objective decision regarding the event’s winner. Alas, this would’ve been an unnecessary relic of civility had this been a true round of debate. Unfortunately, the formality of a ballot would’ve been reserved strictly for me to deliver remarks of admonishment to both participants. Had I been the only judge I would’ve called the round roughly halfway in and, were I a member of a panel I would’ve taken the opportunity between segments to quietly convey that proposal to my fellow judges.
Why? Very early on any real semblance of civility was lost (regardless of who initiated it) and neither candidate was willing to stay on topic and within the provided structure (in terms of who’s “turn” it was to speak) for any reasonable expanse of time. Lastly, before I attempt to explain my ultimate decision (I forced myself to gag one out) had it been a panel I would’ve chastised last night’s moderator for two major reasons: first, no mention of any subject of real discomfort to Clinton was mentioned (Benghazi, pay-for-play, et al) except by her opponent (e-mail scandal, NAFTA/TPP), so take the media’s rampant declarations of her being at ease with a heap of salt and, second, he only “fact-checked” one candidate. The mainstream media has gone on ad nauseam along the lines of, “Yes! He did what Matt Lauer wouldn’t and fact-checked The Donald!” when, at the very least, there were several points of clarification and/or order to be made (taking credit for the economy during your husband’s presidency? Really?).
At any rate, based on the most widely-accepted parameters I discovered in sifting through different parliamentary debate league ballots, I have rendered a verdict on the winner (or lack thereof) of round one (out of three) of this season of Presidential “debate.”
Content/Evidence: This tends to be one of the looser elements both in parliamentary debate and in the POTUS format as far as evidence is concerned, and last night was hardly an exception. It quickly disintegrated into, “Yeah-huh!” “Nu-uh!” and the other side of bullet point, content, switched benches partway into the game. Opening remarks aside, Donald Trump came out composed, delivering factual assertions (he can do it!) on the $2+ trillion in corporate money we could repatriate, the national debt having basically doubled under President Obama and, worn or not, that our trade deficit with the Chinese (in particular) is worsened by their artificial valuation of their currency. Once Hillary Clinton quipped “we all know you like to live in your own reality” and the moderator steadfastly reminded him of whose turn it was to speak, things drifted into the nether realms of composure for The Donald. Nearly all of his (quite valid) talking points on her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which she was not fact-checked for denying), et al, went by the wayside as he reverted back to the counterattack. Unfortunately, this isn’t Italian soccer (epitomized by their counterattack); had he remained calm and on the offensive in terms of issues, he might’ve had a better night.
Argument/Reasoning: Here we find the second verse much the same as the first in that Trump had a lot of strong points early on, and Clinton offered up on a plate the aforementioned, ludicrous remark on the economy during her husband’s tenure as POTUS that Trump failed to call her on. On the Iraq War, rather than call her on having voted for it, he offered a rambling explanation that would’ve been better suited to a simple, “Pass.” When Clinton pressed on “stop and frisk”, Trump said he had “nothing” to say on the issue(s) pertaining to the Civil Rights Movement. Rather than seizing the moment to make him look unprepared to deal with such realities as POTUS, Clinton instead made the bizarre assertion that the entire country is at fault over the de-evolution of said race relations, and he failed to call her out on it.
Organization: Hillary Clinton largely stayed on message and, more importantly, stuck to her strategy of making Donald Trump irritated. It worked, manifested by him (as I mentioned earlier) resorting to little beyond the counterattack. Why did he not call her shot on her “deplorable(s)” remark?!
Presentation/Delivery: Not to sound like a broken record, but Trump had a strong first twenty minutes or so and then fell prey to Clinton’s bait and seemed equally-irritated with a moderator determined to keep Clinton on her training wheels. As the GOP nominee, he knew that was coming. Clinton, conversely, was funny at times (however ad hominem in nature) but veered into a smug caricature of some UC-Berkeley professor way too experienced and witty to be bothered to explain herself to the likes of us (especially we who actually get the nitty gritty of economics; in reality, her husband benefited from an alignment of the stars and a GOP-led Congress that forced a balanced budget upon him). Meanwhile, the nightly talk shows and social media were obsessed with his apparent bout with allergies. DNC also-ran Howard Dean joined Stephen Colbert in making inferences about DJT using cocaine before the debate. Isn’t there a moon out tonight? Shouldn’t you be out shrieking somewhere, Howard? Y’know, Stephen…the DNC way. “Macho, macho man!”
Refutation/Rebuttal: This is where Trump clearly maintained his advantage because the real “debate” element(s) here collapsed into ad hominem and non sequitur banter within the first half of an hour. The real “points” Clinton scored with the media were equally outrageous for entirely different reasons: again, he didn’t call her out for actually voting for the Iraq War as a sitting U.S. Senator and him letting her slide on blaming the current Civil Rights crisis’ on…everybody?! If y’all wanna go to sleep at night with those two points carrying the debate, MSM, knock yourselves out.
Decision: In the sum total, a missed series of opportunities for Trump. Conversely, she failed to make him actually appear as the illiterate madman she so hoped she would. Trump lost this debate, but let there be no mistake in that Clinton didn’t win it either. I would’ve arrived at this decision much earlier on if I had been the custodian of events, but there’s no clear way around the fact this was (for disparate reasons) an outrage and an insult to debate and a waste of time for the American people (and whoever else was bored/suicidal enough) to endure this charade. As I told our copy editor, Al Eldeen, it speaks volumes to me this spectacle was watched by an audience not unlike that of the Super Bowl. Were you entertained, America? Have we yet embarrassed ourselves enough on the global stage? Color me disgusted.
DOUBLE LOSS.