Last Sunday night, US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton came face-to-face in what turned out to be a rather underwhelming second debate.
The debate took place a few days, after a recording of Trump had been released, in which he makes disgusting – to put it mildly – remarks about his treatment of women.
With just under a month to go until one of the most important elections in world history, both candidates were unimpressive.
There was no presidential air about it.
It came across, more like a squabble between two kids on a playground.
Unlike the first, the second debate involved a “town-hall” style format, where some questions came from the audience present.
These were described mainly as people who had not made a decision on who to vote for.
As expected – the issue of Trump’s derogatory comments on women came up.
And in true Trump-fashion, the gloves came off.
In response to whether he had done anything of the derogatory actions described in the video almost a decade ago, he waffled his way through it and repeated the line that his remarks were just “locker room talk”. Initially he had described them as locker room “banter”.
Trump came back with his own retort regarding Bill Clinton’s treatment of women, while in the Oval office, saying his remarks in the video had been “just talk”, whereas “Bill Clinton was abusive to women”.
In response Hilary Clinton hit back with the some advice from “my friend, Michelle Obama”, that “when they go low, you go high”.
She then turned attention to various acts, some racist, that Trump had done without being held accountable, including the “racist lie”, that President Barack Obama had not been born in the US.
The debate, as expected, went on to cover Trump’s unreleased taxes.
His rebuttals differed little from the first debate, where he also promised to release his taxes in due course.
Quite honestly, the hour and a half debate didn’t inspire any confidence in either candidate.
Perhaps Hilary came out the better candidate, as we expect her to, but she could have done much better.
In less than a month the leader of the free world, will have to inspire confidence and bring new vision.
Sunday didn’t feel like this was going to happen.
Perhaps the next and final debate will bring something different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqkluVlY5hs