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The Gong Show is back

October 19, 2016   ·   0 Comments

To get a sense of the insanity of the last two Presidential debates south of the border in the good old US of A, you really have to go back in history and see how a debate by two people vying for the top spot in a leading world government is supposed take place.

The now infamous Kennedy / Nixon debates of 1960 should be the benchmark for anyone making a bid for election.

It is interesting to note that over time the most memorable, most often referenced fact about that debate six decades later, is the personal appearance of both candidates.

While Kennedy came off as a youthful and handsome man thanks to his natural good looks and a skilled makeup team who knew how to paint his face for the camera, Nixon, who never was a matinee idol, reacted badly to the hot studio lights and sweated profusely, giving him the appearance of a man under great duress.

The truth is, appearances can indeed be deceiving.

Kennedy looked good on camera, but secretly suffered from several serious conditions and diseases, was loaded with a cocktail of powerful drugs he took daily, and had a bad back that left him wearing a brace for support much of the time.

Nixon was a seasoned and experienced politician and an intelligent man whose words in the debate were well thought out and well spoken. However, when you are sweating bullets under questioning, it tends to make you appear as if you are hiding something. Nixon’s team figured this out and controlled the temperature in the studio during the next on camera appearance.

The damage, however, was already done and the debate tipped the scale with Kennedy winning the election by the smallest number of votes in that countries history.

When the two men did square off on the first televised national debate, both were given eight minutes to make an opening statement.

Both men presented their case of which direction they though the country should go, and why.

This was followed by a series of questions pertaining to the usual subjects that are the responsibility of a federal government.

Each man answered the questions calmly, rationally, and spoke of specifics regarding policy. While they were in obvious disagreement in most issues, at no time did one attack the other personally.

Fast forward 56 years to the first and second debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

If anything, this gong-show of a debate clearly shows that the United States will be in serious trouble during the next four years.

The debates themselves were poorly moderated and horribly staged and looked more like a cheesy reality television show than a serious debate on the future of a nation.

The opening salvo in the second debate, as predicted, was Clinton’s attack on Trump for his caught-on-video nasty talk about women.

When it was Trump’s turn to respond, he brought up former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s history with women, including his $850,000 out-of-court payout to silence Paula Jones.

“Mine were words. His was action,” Trump claimed, then said that Hillary Clinton “Attacked those same women and attacked them viciously.”

The TV cameras did find Slick Willy in the audience. The former President certainly appeared to looking for a rock to hide under.

With the presidential election under a month away, the real questions is how did a nation like the United States end up in this mess?

It would seem that, for the first time in American history, there is no choice for the next leader. It’s a washout all the way around.

Neither of these people are fit to hold this high office.

Trump is for the most part a failure in his personal life and a buffoon in his public life.

Hillary is morally corrupt and a self serving power-hungry elitist whose past brings up some pretty dark facts.

The next four years will be interesting.

If Trump squeaks in, it will be “anything can happen Thursday’s” for four years.

If the tide swings to Hillary, it won’t be long until another war is under way.

While Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Nixon’s political careers both ended in disaster, at least they entered the fray with dignity and a plan.

In Canada, our political debates thankfully have not gone the way of the Hollywood reality show. I don’t think Canadians would stand for it.

South of the 49th, I hope the U.S. will clean this up before their next election to return some dignity to the White House.

                                                     

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