Ladies and gentlemen, we have a race. Donald Trump has been far behind Hillary Clinton in the polls for almost the entirety of the election, but following this weekend’s events looks to have almost completely closed the gap. With the debates a week and a half away now, the question is can he keep this momentum going and put Clinton on the defensive during the first debate?
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BASKET OF DEPLORABLES
Last Friday, Clinton made her most memorable gaffe to date when she referred to half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables”. She meant to highlight the racist, xenophobic segment of Trump’s voters that have used his candidacy as a coming out party, but it’s never a good idea to attack voters in large groups.
Trump and his campaign quickly jumped on this as a broad, sweeping characterization and has been able to use this as a ‘rally around the flag’ moment for his supporters. Clinton meant to isolate the extreme segment of Trump’s support, but the spin has been that Clinton and the Democrats can’t and don’t want to connect with Republican voters at all.
There have been plenty of parallels drawn between this and Mitt Romney’s ‘47 percent’ comment in 2012, but it’s to be determined whether or not it has the same long-term damaging effects. If Clinton goes on to lose the election though, this will be one of the moments historians will say changed the course.
HILLARY’S HEALTH
Trump’s strategy of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks may have paid dividends when Clinton was shown stumbling before getting into a car after leaving a 9/11 memorial early due to health issues. Clinton is 68, two years younger than Trump, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from claiming that she is unhealthy and unfit for the presidency.
Since then, Clinton announced plans to release more of her medical records in order to assuage any concerns about her long-term health. She may or may not go as far as John McCain did when there were questions raised about his battles with skin cancer, but she is right in attacking this issue head-on.
What’s peculiar about the attention being all on Clinton for this is that Trump has released even fewer medical records and the only person saying he is physically fit for the Oval Office is a discredited gastroenterologist. That same doctor has admitted to being an open fan of Trump and records show that he solicited Trump for what type of opinion he wanted.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD
That brings us to the biggest underlying story of this election, the difference in how the media covers Trump and Clinton. While Trump has claimed that the media is biased against him, he has gotten a relative free pass. Meanwhile. Clinton is being punished for running as a traditional candidate in this untraditional year.
Clinton has not gotten a chance to push any part of her platform and is instead getting hammered for any mistake over and over again. The e-mail imbroglio has continued to play a huge part in her campaign and she has not been allowed to move past it despite being exonerated by multiple investigations. The GOP is continuing to insinuate that she is hiding something though and it has stayed an issue.
On the other hand, Trump continues to say and do what he pleases without any real repercussions. He still has not released his tax returns, keeps making outlandish statements, and has not been crucified for his numerous shady business deals why Hillary has been. It’s true that it’s difficult for the press to handle covering a candidate like Trump, but how they have gone about it so far has been poor.
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