Happy Talk, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

October 1, 2016 Victor El-Khouri 0 Comments

A few thoughts about the debate.  Nothing too deep — unlike Hillary, I’m not an expert on policy, and there are lots of better places on the Interwebs where you can get sensible discussions among many perspectives — but more about the media coverage and the shitstorm that has followed.

•  Donald Trump really does not like it when women disagree with him and speak up about it.  It was obvious when he interrupted Hillary 51 times (compared to 17 times when she interrupted him) and it’s been even more obvious in the days since.  He cannot stop himself from talking about Alicia Machado, Miss Universe 1996, whom Hillary says he called “Miss Piggy” and ‘Miss Housekeeping” when she gained weight after winning the crown.  Friday morning, he tweeted vociferously about Machado, saying, among other things, that she was “no angel.”

What he hasn’t done is deny that he said those things to her.

There are rumors (unsubstantiated) that she starred in porn films and has unsavory friendships.  Personally, I don’t care if she walked naked through Times Square, foaming at the mouth and jiggling her belly fat (Perhaps this is too much information about my nightmares).  She is not running for the highest office in the land.  He is.  The way she talks to people is not important.  The way he talks to people is.

•  Why aren’t Hispanics complaining more loudly about the “Miss Housekeeping” nickname?  Or are they, and I missed it?

•  Trump is obsessed with how much people weigh, especially but not limited to women.  It’s odd, because neither he nor Steve Bannon nor Roger Ailes nor Chris Christie, all in his inner circle, seem to be substantially overweight by our current societal standards.  Why is this?  Did his parents fat-shame him?  Did hurling these insults make the cool kids like him?  There is a theory out there, originally published in Spy magazine in the 1990s, that offers some evidence that he patronized a “Dr. Feelgood” type to get stimulants.  These helped him to lose weight, but had the unfortunate side effect of inducing paranoia.

That might not be true, although I can’t find a retraction, nor a denial from Trump.  It would explain so much.

• The Trump campaign complains that the debate was “rigged” because the moderator, Lester Holt, did not ask Clinton about Benghazi or her e-mails or the scandals surrounding the Clinton Foundation.  Personally, I have seen plenty of reporters ask Hillary about her e-mails (including Matt Lauer, who spent more than half the time she had at a recent Town Hall that was supposed to talk about veterans issues), and she spent 11 hours in front of a Senate committee talking about Benghazi.

However, perhaps there were voters who didn’t see any of those things, and this debate was the first time they tuned in to see the candidates.  Perhaps those issues could have been addressed.  However, it  isn’t fair to talk about Hillary’s errors of judgement without talking about Trump’s.  His foundation is a lot more shady than Clinton’s.  His business dealings are a lot less transparent, or he would release his tax returns.

• Every focus group response I saw after the debate showed that viewers said they wanted less emphasis on the past and more emphasis on the candidates’ plans for the future.  The next presidential debate is a town hall, where citizens, not journalists, ask the questions.  Let’s see.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, thinks she might feel right at home in Detroit <http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/09/30/donald-trump-polls-at-0-percent-in-detroit/>.