Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:12 pm
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz asserts that “Donald Trump now has a lower bar to clear certainly in terms of debates.” This is ridiculous, because the debates are part of the test to determine who is better suited to be president of the United States. Foreign leaders will not set a lower bar for the president, or cut him any slack in negotiations because he is catastrophically unsuited to be leader of the world’s only remaining superpower.
Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:
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Well this race isn’t over in Trump’s favor any more than it was over in Hillary’s favor a month ago when she had that ten to twelve point lead and a lot of people were just speculating about who she’d have in her cabinet. So you know, Hillary Clinton still has the built-in Electoral College advantage, that will help. But in terms of, Rich makes a really good point which is Donald Trump now has a lower bar to clear certainly in terms of debates. A lot of people who might be expecting him to be fulminating, attacking Crooked Hillary might see a more sober figure if he chooses to go that way. I really think that Hillary Clinton has to fashion some kind of appeal to those white working class voters who are tempted by the Trump brand, who might ordinarily vote Democratic. She has to offer them something about improving their lives. But when she talks about policy, she’s kind of boring and it’s hard for her to break through the static. She doesn’t have the showmanship.
Just as the media has set a lower bar for Donald Trump, apparently debate moderators and audiences must now do the same for the debates.
However, previous media behavior is not any excuse for lowering the bar for the presidential debates. Americans must expect Trump to be better than Hillary, rather than graded on a curve. Kurtz claims Clinton is boring when she talks about policy without allowing for the fact that she actually has discernible policies. Trump is all over the place and impossible to pin down.
Fox News is well aware of how dangerous Donald Trump is to himself. He is going to blunder again and again, and the only protection they can offer is to argue that he shouldn’t really be expected to offer anything of substance, just put on a good and entertaining show.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
