Life of Wry

Tonight was the media event of the political season. After more hype than I can ever recall for a political debate (honestly, clocks permanently located in the lower third, excitedly counting down to the moment the debate starts… a week away; promotion ads worthy of a boxing championship; unending, repetitive analysis of what each candidate would say and do… thank you media, who thrive on record breaking audiences, who will keep that playing field as even as possible through false equivalencies, and whose goal it is to keep us panting on the edge of our seats, eyes glued to their coverage), we had our first face-off between the two major party candidates for president of the United States.

Cutting to the chase, it was an embarrassing display of ignorance and ridiculously rude, immature behavior on the part of Trump, but an immensely satisfying knock out delivered by the ever-prepared, if calculated, Hillary. After a few weeks of growing despair as the gap narrowed to a statistical and improbable tie, and wondering what was going to become of our threadbare democracy if Trump should pull out a win–which suddenly seemed a real and horrifying possibility–the victory was sweet.

But man…  the weeks leading up have been brutal!

I have been watching Trump’s momentum build in stunned horror. I actually cried in frustration, feeling hopelessly defeated, as I drove down to PV last week, feeling like this country is on its way to electing the most unqualified, ill-suited person ever to serve as president. A man entirely committed to self service against a woman who’s committed her entire life to public service. A man who says, among a firehose of other unforgivable things, “I like money. I’m very greedy. I’m a greedy person. I shouldn’t tell you that, I’m a greedy — I’ve always been greedy. I love money, right?” 

Crass, vulgar and utterly classless.

And until the debate tonight, mind boggling as it is, Trump had all the mo.

Well… tonight I could breathe again. Her qualifications for the office were in full display — command of facts, experience, temperament, a role model for our kids. He just thrashed, sniffed, bullied, lied and couldn’t go a full two minutes on any policy question, lacking depth and understanding of anything. He just yelled and blustered his way through 90 minutes. And then, afterward, after completely embarrassing himself and the republican party, complained the mic didn’t work, and threatened to bring to the next debate a discussion of Hillary’s husband’s infidelities decades ago (he of the multiple affairs, marriages and demeaning beauty pageants).

At least that was my reaction. Will see how the polls go. I’m definitely on the edge of my seat for that.