On the campaign trail, the big story of the week was NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief Forum,” where the winner was Vladimir Putin, who became the first Russian leader in recent history to receive an endorsement from a U.S. Presidential candidate, and the loser was Matt Lauer, who was roundly criticized for failing to call Trump on his bogus claim to have been against the war in Iraq all along. As for the two candidates, neither of them was particularly impressive. Clinton was put on the defensive about her e-mail scandal. Trump was full of hot air.
During a televised forum in New York City seen as something of a dry run for the presidential debates, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton pledged that the US was “not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we are not putting ground troops into Syria”, and used the occasion to repeat that it was “a mistake” to use a private email while secretary of state. Republican opponent Donald Trump, appearing separately, said Russian president Vladimir Putin was “more of a leader” than Barack Obama. Trump went on to characterize his relationship with the Russian president as mutually beneficial: “I think when he calls me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment. OK?” Obama, speaking in Laos before returning to the US, said that Trump proves he is not qualified to be president “every time he speaks”.
The poor reviews that rained down on Matt Lauer foreshadow the scrutiny, and anxiety, facing the anchors who will preside over three Trump-Clinton debates.
Hillary Clinton presented a more humane, religious and caring portrait of herself, in an attempt to give the voters some reasons to like her, and not just have them vote for her as the lesser of two evils. The next president, she told the audience at the National Baptist Convention...should be “a praying person.” “Our greatest leaders are often the most humble because they recognize both the awesome responsibilities of power and the frailty of human action,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience that was almost entirely black. The nation, she added, needed “a president who will pray with you and for you.” In an address...the Democratic nominee spoke...of her activist, social justice background, often fusing policy and personal anecdotes about how her Methodist faith had steered her toward public policy. Mrs. Clinton, who is often criticized for her lack of self-reflection, said she was “grateful for the great gift of personal salvation and for the great obligation of the social gospel.” She quoted biblical scripture. She talked about her youth minister who took her from the safe harbor of suburbia to the inner city of Chicago, and she shared the memory of seeing her gruff father bent on his knees in prayer each night....Mrs. Clinton portrayed her rival as a nihilist who doesn’t understand African-Americans or their faith.
But a day later, Ms. Clinton sparked a controversy after suggesting half of Donald Trump’s supporters belonged in “a basket of deplorables” which she described as consisting of “the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it.”
Hillary Clinton presented a more humane, religious and caring portrait of herself, in an attempt to give the voters some reasons to like her, and not just have them vote for her as the lesser of two evils. The next president, she told the audience at the National Baptist Convention...should be “a praying person.” “Our greatest leaders are often the most humble because they recognize both the awesome responsibilities of power and the frailty of human action,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience that was almost entirely black. The nation, she added, needed “a president who will pray with you and for you.” In an address...the Democratic nominee spoke...of her activist, social justice background, often fusing policy and personal anecdotes about how her Methodist faith had steered her toward public policy. Mrs. Clinton, who is often criticized for her lack of self-reflection, said she was “grateful for the great gift of personal salvation and for the great obligation of the social gospel.” She quoted biblical scripture. She talked about her youth minister who took her from the safe harbor of suburbia to the inner city of Chicago, and she shared the memory of seeing her gruff father bent on his knees in prayer each night....Mrs. Clinton portrayed her rival as a nihilist who doesn’t understand African-Americans or their faith.
But a day later, Ms. Clinton sparked a controversy after suggesting half of Donald Trump’s supporters belonged in “a basket of deplorables” which she described as consisting of “the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it.”
She went to note “some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America”.
Republicans pounced on Hillary Clinton’s remarks that half of Donald J. Trump’s supporters fit into a “basket of deplorables.” Mrs. Clinton later said she had spoken too broadly, but doubled down on what she called Mr. Trump’s appeal to prejudice.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post Editorial Board states that The Hillary Clinton email story is out of control,
"Ms. Clinton is hardly blameless. She treated the public’s interest in sound record-keeping cavalierly. A small amount of classified material also moved across her private server. But it was not obviously marked as such, and there is still no evidence that national security was harmed. Ms. Clinton has also admitted that using the personal server was a mistake. The story has vastly exceeded the boundaries of the facts. Imagine how history would judge today’s Americans if, looking back at this election, the record showed that voters empowered a dangerous man because of . . . a minor email scandal. There is no equivalence between Ms. Clinton’s wrongs and Mr. Trump’s manifest unfitness for office."
