Final Debate Review: One President vs One Petulant Child

So the last Trump vs Hillary debate is done. It will be remembered as the debate where Trump put himself and his personal acceptance ahead of the opinion of 200 million voters. I think this will damage him more than any other third debate ever, and will bring on a wave of condemnation by Republicans and more un-endorsements. I think he will walk that statement back, soon, and may be forced to Apple-igize or non-apologize for it.

As to the debate, we saw the mellow Trump, on downers. He kept his cool most of the way but started to lose his concentration on not interrupting about half-way in, and did ever more of the interruptions towards the end. On the issues, Trump had worked on several points, delivered a few of those moderately well, in particular keeping to a more-or-less single talking point per response, and developing it, rather than mentioning every right-wing talking point. As it is, he didn't have much to add to what was out there and a few of his attacks had already been fact-checked to be false, so their practical value would now be even less. He still is, a businessman, and his best argumnents were near his business background, on jobs, on trade, on the economy and taxes. He was also doing good Republican talking points on the Supreme Court topic, something significantly more coherent than his previous ramblings. Many Republicans will like the development of his debating skills in those areas and probably all would agree, this was the best debate Trump has delivered. He has taken coaching and it shows. Were it not for the promise to not accept the verdict of American voters but rather substitute his own judgment instead, then he could get close to a tie out of the debate.

Hillary was polished, calm, played safe, needled 'Donald' many times but not very roughly - I loved the Emmys - and worked constantly on her favorables. At every point of the debate she was Presidential. I would think most independents and moderates and undecideds will give the debate to her, she should end up having won the debate. The Democrats will all love of her of course (but not all Republicans will like what they heard from Trump). There were very pointed barbs that probably stung deep, like the one in response to Trump sexual assault defenses, that women know exactly that type of behavior and the excuses. I think the most damaging of the attacks on the issues other than election fraud, was the Putin spying and whether Trump accepts its Russians doing it. The ending statement was just about pitch-perfect, she's clearly had time to prep for this possibility and Trump was totally not prepared for it, so he fumbled around for his talking points and I would guess if we time it, Hillary went 5 or 10 seconds over, and Trump is at least 10 seconds under the 60 seconds they were allocated.

I was expecting a big attack from Hillary on some surprise, and it wasn't there. She did some hits on Trump but on familiar ground, like buying Chinese steel and hiring undocumented workers and not showing taxes, but I was expecting a bombshell. It may be that she had one, but decided (or had pre-calculated it with her team already, which is more likely, now that I think of it) that as Trump declared himself above the decision of American voters, that should be the story of the debate, and let it stand, don't bring any other issues now. Hillary can still use her TV ads and surrogates to run hits if she has other stuff to use. This is probably an impact as big as the 'p*ssygate' tapes, and Hillary made a good, solid rebuke of it in her response. I believe Trump didn't know how big a hole he just dug for himself (as he typically never does understand whenever he does big campaign mistakes). I am certain this will be the issue the Hillary campaign will use to push their narrative after the debate.

We saw a President on stage, a poised, calm, fully prepared and sensible President. And we saw a petulant child, out of his depth, blaming everybody, telling lies, claiming he hadn't said things he's said, arguing with the moderator, and interrupting. I believe many Republicans who voted or said they endorse Trump, felt ashamed by this charade. Hillary played both edges well, pointing out in a planned piece that Trump took an op-ed against Reagan in 1987 (saying same stuff as he now accuses of Obama) and then spontaneously when Trump pulled Bernie in to hit Hillary (rather well this time) Hillary slammed Trump on Bernie with the quote that Bernie calls Trump the most dangerous person ever to run. Haha, don't try that cheap trick against a pro debater. The real polling will probably give this something like a 55/45 or 60/40 level decision, I don't expect a 2 to 1 level drubbing like the first debate, but Hillary won more voter opinions than Trump won. The online polling obviously is bogus, that'll show now that Trump won as every debate always said, as those online polls allow multiple votes and Putin's minions are powering those. Of the horse race polls, which will start to come out around Saturday/Sunday that will have polling done in the next 2 days or so, I expect when we get the first 4 or 5 polls, the race will have moved into Hillary's favor another point or maybe two. It will mostly be undecideds now breaking for Hillary, and not so much lost polling support of Trump. But the erosion of Trump's Republican base voter support will continue, and I believe the enthusiasm of Republican voters will diminish, somewhat, in the aftermath of this debate. They will be getting very demoralized, as Trump had to knock this out of the park, and he didn't even hit the baseball. Trump will now face unprecedented pressure from everybody to acknowledge in public that the voters get to decide who becomes President.

I do feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. She's that talented and prepared, she would have deserved a better Republican than this. Hopefully in 2020 at least the Republicans will nominate someone who is sane and coherent and prepared. This campaign for Hillary has been like trying to play billiards on a cruise ship that is in a vicious storm, constantly scrambling the balls on the billiard table. Still, its now done. We have 20 days left, people are already voting, and Hillary will run away with a landslide election victory. I am curious to see, will she reach neutral popularity in Gallup polling by election day. She just might.


ADDENDUM - After the Tweets

I again re-lived the whole debate via contemporary Twitter feed. I think there were 8 major moments, four on each side. Trump well, he managed to damage himself. He is struggling with the worst Hispanic level of support ever measured, and the debate was in Nevada. So Trump decided to speak Spanish and use the not-nice term 'hombre' It did not strike me, as a Finn, as a particularly onorous term, thinking more of some old Cowboy Western style movie. But plenty of Twitter users were offended. I think its safe to say, the Hispanics noticed.

The sexual assault groping issue went badly as probably could be expected. But that also went even worse for Trump than any sane person would say, in that he said he hasn't done anything wrong, because he even didn't apologize to Melania. Yeah. Good choice of word. Melania is already on videotape saying how Trump apologized. But now that issue - the most damaging tape from Trump's past so far, was given new life and will not help him with women.

Well, then there is of course the fact that Trump is having the worst gender gap ever measured. And how did he end the debate? By calling Hillary a nasty woman. Even a man gets it, that this is not how you win over women voters.

So lets switch gears. There were four moments from Hillary's side that could also be summarized by a single word. I'll start with the moderator slam. Energy. Hillary was so prepped for the Wikileaks quote, knowing they might use the one about her wanting open borders. And Chris Wallace did take the sleazy journalist short-cut (he is a Republican) to try to 'gotcha' Hillary with it. But she was prepped. So her answer, if you finished the sentence, I was talking about energy... OUCH. Yes, an open border not for PEOPLE to come across, but for USA to import and export electricity and natural gas etc between USA, Mexico and Canada, that makes sense (we have that in Europe for example between Finland, Sweden and Norway, selling electricity across the borders). That was just superb prep. And with that, except for the hardest of hard-core Hillary-haters, she took Wikileaks totally out of the picture, for the last 20 days. SMART and effective.

Then there was the word 'thirty'. Hillary loved it when Trump challeged her on not achieving anything in 30 years. A very precise but cutting rebuke, ending with Hillary helping catch Osama Bin Laden while Trump was doing celebrity Apprentice. Ouch. But a very good prepped speech on highlighting her strengths vs Trump's weaknesses.

The Trump bragged about his Hotel in Las Vegas. Hillary fast on her feet, and after Trump had been interrupting for an hour, hit him with 'made with Chinese steel' Bam! The word China stung Trump and will resonate especially in Ohio, Pennsylvania, coal and steel country. 

But Hillary's hardest hit is the word puppet. That was very very smart and devastating. After Trump did a good job of attacking Hillary about how 'weak' she was and how much Putin didn't respect her, for Hillary to hit Trump, yeah, Putin wants Trump as his puppet. That probably would have been the killer line of the debate. Except for one word. I gave 4 from Hillary but only 3 from Trump. The most devastating word, if you summarize the whole debate into single words to describe its main moments.

Its suspense. That Trump said he won't commit to accepting the verdict of the American voters, and he will keep the nation in suspense. I don't think this will be allowed to stand. I do think this will be the final straw for many who were on the edge of their seats, should they stay with Trump or bail. And many opportunists who were on the Trump Train, but seeing it will be a total train-wreck, will now find their 'principled' way out. If he won't respect American voters, I can't endorse him anymore, and they will start to un-endorse him. I would expect a new wave of those un-endorsements now. So eight words to describe the 8 main moments. From Hillary its Energy, China, Nasty and Puppet. From Trump its Hombre, Apologize, Nasty and Suspense. That concludes our election season 2016 debate analysis blogs. Thank you for playing along.

If this debate left you with a really nasty taste in your mouth, a sick feeling in your stomach, and you want to try to wash it out with some laughter. I released my 13th book. Its 1001 Jokes about Donald Trump. Get it while he's still the alleged candidate, and laugh. At this point Laughter is the Best Medicine (I already emailed the Hillary Clinton campaign a shared licence complimentary copy of the book). Its 235 pages long, has 1,450 jokes in total, and only costs $4.99. I am showing 1 free page of jokes every day from now until election day to help promote the ebook, and the first 3 pages of jokes are already up for you to enjoy even if you don't buy the book. So lets laugh at Trump. See it here TRUMP vs The Seventh Steve.

Comments

[grouch]

If Hillary decides 4 years is enough (she's earned that), would Michelle Obama step up in 2020? That would be about the time she will be facing an empty nest.

[grouch]

This thing is getting long:

An Exhaustive List of the Allegations Women Have Made Against Donald Trump

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/all-the-women-accusing-trump-of-rape-sexual-assault.html

[Millard Filmore]

Apparently there is a big dinner with both Hillary and Trump in attendance. From the comments in this link, Donald is losing a few more states with his speaking remarks.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/10/20/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-live-feed-its-all-good-fun-until/

[Winter]

For all their woes and faults, the "media" can still make sense of news:

In the debates, Hillary Clinton showed exactly why she should be president
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-that-trump-lost-the-debates-its-that-clinton-won-them/2016/10/20/23b49c74-96f7-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html

Perhaps most important, she has kept her rhetoric civil and inclusive, in the face of an opponent bent on trashing the norms of democratic discourse. This is no mere style point. It is in a way substantive too, because this election has taken on importance beyond the already-high stakes for national policy; it has turned into a trial of our democratic culture. Certainly, Ms. Clinton has found ways to needle her opponent. But by preparing for the debates, using them to advance rational arguments and refraining from responding in kind to Mr. Trump’s lowest blows, Ms. Clinton has exemplified what’s still good about that culture. In fact, you might say she has reminded people of what’s good about “establishment” politicians — about people who understand that it takes skill to survive and advance their causes in the public square, and who make it their business to polish those skills.

[grouch]

Millard Filmore:

That was mentioned on Washington Post, but they don't give much info.

The following article has the idiotic reverse chronology format, but contains a tidbit of Trump's September expenditures:

The Latest: Trump, Clinton 1 seat apart at Al Smith dinner

"Trump showered his longtime digital firm Giles-Parscale with more than $20 million in September, nearly as much as it had been paid the entire rest of the campaign."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-latest-twitter-says-most-debate-tweets-were-about-trump/2016/10/20/8108f280-96bb-11e6-9cae-2a3574e296a6_story.html

Hoping Tomi digs up more campaign finance data. I'm really curious about how much Trump's been feeding himself from donations.

[grouch]

This one's heartbreaking:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/20/1584899/-After-the-debate-a-Utah-woman-stepped-up-to-share-her-late-term-abortion-story-and-it-s-going-viral

[grouch]

Another dailykos:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/19/1584737/-Chris-Wallace-did-everything-he-could-to-help-Trump-and-still-couldn-t

[grouch]

Oops. I was wrong; the Washington Post does have some more info on the Al Smith dinner:

Donald Trump just turned a charity dinner into a screed against Hillary Clinton

“Last night, I called Hillary a nasty woman, but this stuff is all relative. After listening to Hillary rattle on and on and on, I don’t think so badly of Rosie O’Donnell anymore.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/20/donald-trump-just-turned-a-charity-dinner-into-a-screed-against-hillary-clinton/

[Pauledward79]

Interesting take on the debate regarding body language.

http://www.attn.com/stories/12195/media-strategist-joel-silberman-weighs-candidates-body-language-third-presidential

[grouch]

theguardian's write-up of the Al Smith dinner:

Trump booed for calling Clinton 'corrupt' as bipartisan dinner turns sour

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/21/trump-booed-for-calling-clinton-corrupt-as-bipartisan-dinner-turns-sour

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Everybody

I was thinking about Trump and the Al Smith dinner. Its the Catholic charity event a little before the election, where most election years, the Presidential candidates both show up, and do a joke-filled speech, attacking each other, the rich people of the audience and usually also themselves. We did get Trump and Hillary shaking hands which they bizarrely did not do either at the start, nor the end of the third debate. Previously in the second debate, they didn't shake hands in the beginning but did at the end. In the first debate they did as all previous Presidential candidates had done, and shook hands at the beginning and end.

At the Al Smith dinner speech, Trump was booed. Hillary shined. Trump ended a bit morosely and somewhat bitterly in the end (plus he delivered a pretty funny joke, but at the expense of Melania, in attendance, which will not endear him any further with any women, I would think, by making the wife the punching bag when its the custom at this event, that you do SELF-deprecating humor and attack your rival). Hillary by contrast, ended on a very uplifting, quite religious theme to her speech. One that no doubt was also designed to show the contrast for any religious voters, that Hillary is a religious woman who has lived that part of her life too and knows what it means (where Trump clearly does not).

Anyway, the demeanor. Hillary at the debate yesterday, AFTER the debate, very visibly, and again today at the Al Smith dinner, was beaming. She KNOWS she has won the election already. Yes, the Democrats have to be brought out to the polls and she needs a big wave to get the other victories in the Senate and possibly the House, but Hillary has worked to become President for 30 years. She married Bill Clinton and pushed him to become the Governor of Arkansas just so SHE could become President (by making Bill do that first). She knows everything there is to know about US campaigning and politics and knows, she has won this. Plus she has the internal data machine that tells her its been won. Plus she has the most powerful fund-raising machine in history, still churning out several million dollars per day in fresh money, and they can see that Trump's modest fund-raising ability is nearly stalling. Where Hillary expands the investments from her bank account, Trump is cutting down.

Hillary appears like she has this covered, she's won this, this is going all exactly to plan and even ahead of where she expected to be. There is a totally confident winner when we see her.

Then there is Trump. During the debate yesterday he was subdued, that was maybe his drugs, if he took his 'down' pills, and the severe coaching he had received not to be his normal bombastic self. That wore off, he became more ridiculous towards the end with the interruptions etc, but still, he knew he was losing it. The audience laughed at him when he claimed nobody respects women more than him. And we know how much Trump needs the audience and gets confused if an audience turns on him. At the end of the debate, he was angry and bitter and all of his facial expressions and movements and body language yelled out 'I lost this debate'. He KNOWS he lost it. When Hillary went to mingle with the crowd and take selfies and shake hands, Trump first waited on the stage and his family came to rescue him, and then he soon departed. Looking very downcast.

The Trump at the Al Smith dinner did not seem confident anymore. It was like someone had REALLY spanked him and told him to behave, and he put on a forced smile and read his prepared jokes and then tried to smile through Hillary's jokes (She did a good job laughing at Trump's jokes).

The crowd at his event earlier today was significantly smaller than his usual crowds and nowhere near capacity. He had that one ex-Manafort political liaison manager quit on him now (rats escaping sinking ship). He has seen how his hotels are facing mass cancellations and can't sell rooms at half-price even when other hotels are fully booked. His kids no doubt fear that dad's massive empire is imploding and they've poured over those financial figures and he knows, Trump knows this run has cost him dearly, in terms of his other businesses.

At his rally, Trump read that speech where he started off like he was going to accept the election result, and walk back his crazy talk from the debate, but then being the wise-ass that he is, he flipped it into a joke, only if he wins. There was even a version circulated to the press, showing his remarks, that had the alternate paragraph, where Trump ran the same line but saying, he'll accept the election result, if Hillary loses.

I am CERTAIN it was Kellyanne Conway who wrote that paragraph up to Trump's twisted joke in the end. And Trump then 'edited' the text to that morose ending. It may even be, that this silly joke is what prompted that one guy to quit. I am sure the real politicos inside Trump's campaign are despondent over this issue. They understand, their lives are politics, they had a career in politics, and Trump is setting a time bomb for November 9, which may wipe out their political careers (or what they may have had hoped, they might still recover after Trump).

But Trump knows he did wrong. He knows that was a big mistake and he is struggling with the issue, that he has to walk it back somehow, but he is too stubborn to apologize. We heard his daughter say that of course dad will accept the election result. This is what Ivanka said in public. Now they have that fight inside the family, where she is trying to reason with dad and Trump still does this stupid stuff.

John McCain did come out with a sane statement, saying that all who have lost the election have congratulated the winner as 'my President'. It is a proud American tradition and one that is not in any way partisan. It is the very core of being an American.

I do hope that more of this comes now as pressure, I am disgusted at most Republicans who have said nothing about this.

In a practical sense, it won't matter. This election will not be close. The election result will be crystal-clear long before the polls have closed, and the networks will simply not announce that Hillary is the new President until the last polls on the West Coast close, but the running tally of Electoral College votes won will be decided long before that time comes and anyone who can do math, an see the EC vote tally on the screen to see, oh, Hillary has won Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, etc etc, she is clearly the winner...

And the victory is not DEPENDENT on the other side conceding. There is no way the police and military personnel and civil servants would somehow 'defect' and support a coup attempt by Trump. Because he is not in the White House being voted out of office, there is no risk of a 'hostile' transfer of power, it will be from Obama to Hillary anyway. BUT this is a HORRIBLE precedent and a HUGE stain on the US democracy (again, yet another horrible horrible thing to teach future politicians, that this might be acceptable).

Now here is the good part. There is 19 days left. Trump knew he lost yesterday. The way he was at the Al Smith dinner, and the handshake, I think signals that he is starting his own mental journey to the fact, that he has lost this election. There is nothing more they can do. People are already voting. All early voting data say big surge for Democrats, Republican vote is down. All registration data says the Democrats have a big surge and the Republicans do not. The 'silent majority' did not appear for Trump.

And as most polls show the 7 or 8 point race, including Fox's own poll, Trump and his team know, the reality is, they are not going to win. Nobody comes back from 7 points down in 19 days. Not when there is no debate left.

I hope Trump now gets to terms with his failure. I hope he will be forced by Republicans to take back that disqualifying statement that he would not accept the decision of the voters. I am not confident he can do that but there is plenty of time and he may well get to terms with it. The good thing is, that Hillary will be winning by landslide, so most American voters will see it is a clear victory and massive mandate. With that, at least this type of campaigning will be tarnished as a strategy. And the Republicans will have to do a new Autopsy. One which could be just summarized in one sentence. We told you last time what to do.

This will be a good thing for the Republicans to experience but the bad thing is, at least partly, they will not yet learn the full message they have to learn. They will learn that they should not nominate a sexist racist bastard. And they should make sure their next nomination contest actually prepares their candidate to debate Hillary Clinton, and to show tax returns and to be properly vetted not to be a sexual molester and serial fraud. But it will not teach them that they need a MODERATE. The right wing of the party will insist that Trump was 'not pure enough' that he was a wishy-washy flip-flopping ex-Democrat and that the party loses with moderates like John McCain, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. So they will insist they need a right-wing purist extremist candidate (most likely Ted Cruz). Which means they'll lose by another landslide in 2020... I don't mind that, they do need to go through the full medicine to learn the error of their ways and get back to being a sane moderate sensible adult and facts-oriented political party. That might appear for 2024....

But I am kind of in a melancholy place today. The election is over. I am trying to remain excited and interested in the Senate and House races (gosh, and I will be happy to see Sheriff Arpaio lose his job) but usually every 4 years the Presidential election 3 weeks out before election day, I could barely sleep, I'd be watching the polls and doing my forecast models and recalculate the Electoral College votes etc. This election is done.

And here is a thought. The Trump event was not filled to the max. The Trump Train is now losing its momentum. Trump doesn't have any national high-exposure ways to get it back. Instead the number of women coming forward about sexual abuse keeps growing daily (its now at least 13 with that tennis woman) and the Hillary machine is pushing up its GOTV machine to overdrive mode. When a candidate speaks of a vote being rigged, of a vote being stolen - that does NOT increase turnout it DEPRESSES it. On HIS SIDE. Trump is now punching new holes in his own ship, to make it sink faster. It is plausible that Trump sees a COLLAPSE in REPUBLICAN TURNOUT.

I did not model that to happen. I said Trump's army is loyal to a fault and will not desert him. But they also BELIEVE him. They believe him more than any news outlet. If their guy Trump says, this election is rigged (and most states are controlled by Republicans, this means that Trump accuses REPUBLICAN Governors and state administrations of defrauding voters) that could mean he falls below the 37% vote count. If 10% of his voters now just decide to not show up, its pointless, Hillary has won the election and there is no point in showing up - then he is down to 34% and that means (with the others doing 6%, 3% & 1%) that Hillary is up to 56%. A 22% catastrophic apocalyptic calamity. And yes, then the House is gone, and many local races, Governors etc, will also flip.

Remember, there is a BONUS coming to Hillary above what the last polls will measure, that is because of her unprecedented GOTV advantage and the female voter surge. So if we start to see polls going well into double-digits now, Hillary around 12% now next week, and then last week getting into 14% or 15%, then a 20% election might be in the cards. But even just the 16% that I predicted, means Trump only wins about 10 states and will go down as one of the biggest losers in US Presidential election history. Good.

But yeah. I am feeling a bit like after the Nokia sale news broke and that Elop was removed from being Nokia CEO. Like, now what? I'd been so intensely involved in a news story that consumed me, now what? At least I thought the fun would last until Nov 8 haha...

But I am REALLY REALLY proud of my joke book. Gosh. I never EVER thought I'd have the chance to publish a whole book just of my own original jokes. And to think, I've come up with over 3,500 jokes about Trump and the Republican circus around him, in the past 16 months. I've averaged 7 new jokes daily haha. Gosh. Wow. And you guys here, you were part of it, reading my early blogs about Trumpian sillyness and liking those and then commenting here about the race. If you didn't have this discussion with me, I would never have been able to be that deeply involved in the political matters, just on Twitter. I really appreciate it (oh, and a special treat was that James Bond manuscript. I think at some point I'll go finish that story too).

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi pauledward

(Welcome to our little chat club!)

VERY interesting article, thanks! Yes the body language seemed obvious even to the untrained eye like mine (and touches a bit on what I said in the above comment) but that article is by an expert who knew what those body language clues were and could detect when they happened and explain their importance. VERY illuminating article thanks! I hope my 'insider' debate coach analysis of the first debate, the second, detailed one, would also have given to my readers about the methods of rhetoric used in that debate.

Everybody, pls go read, that is an excellent article on the body language of the third debate (and also relates now to their demeanor at the Al Smith dinner).

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[grouch]

Tomi:

"It ain't over 'til it's over."

I wonder how much these 3 debates will be studied and used for teaching.

Maybe there's a lesson or two in this, also:

Alex Jones Makes Trump Look Polite in Debate Meltdown

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/alex-joness-debate-meltdown-makes-trump-look-polite.html

[grouch]

Steve Bell has a twisted mind. I approve his message. :D

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/oct/20/steve-bell-on-the-final-us-presidential-debate-cartoon

[grouch]

2008 is calling us...

Undecided
By David Sedaris

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/undecided

[Winter]

Here is someone suggesting that Trump could bet on himself losing the elections:

http://daniel-slack.newsvine.com/_news/2016/10/20/36241087-is-donald-trump-and-his-associates-betting-on-losing

"Throughout this election, many have claimed that Donald Trump did not seem to initially threw his hat into the ring to win. Since Donald Trump is not an idiot, maybe he has more to gain by losing the election? He has been saying that the Election is rigged, maybe he is speaking of himself doing the deed. I do not know, but considering his track record on truth, I doubt he will ever tell."

[Winter]

Video of Donald Trump trying to vote alongside Billy Bush in 2004 shows how hard it is to commit voter fraud
https://www.businessinsider.nl/donald-trump-video-billy-bush-2004-voter-fraud-2016-10/?international=true&r=US

Trump visits three polling places and still has to fill in an absentee ballot because his registration is not correct.

[grouch]

Haven't seen a transcript link posted yet, so...

Full transcript: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s final presidential debate

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/19/13336894/third-presidential-debate-live-transcript-clinton-trump

[grouch]

“All the black and brown people have to leave”: Trump’s scary impact on how kids think

http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/20/13319366/donald-trump-racism-bigotry-children-bullying-muslim-mexican-black-immigrant

[Winter]

Even Fox News is getting quite negative about Trump:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/20/trump-couldnt-resist.html

Trump has been trying to keep his supporters onboard by telling them that what they see with their eyes is not real. He is not losing, but rather the polls are rigged. He is not being accused by multiple women of sexual assault, but rather is a victim of a conspiracy between the Clinton campaign and the press. And, in the most significant reimagining of reality, says that even if he does lose when the election is over it will be because of fraud.

Even if Trump believed in what he has said is “large scale” voter fraud, what would possess him to say in a debate that he might not abide by the results of the election?

It must be hubris.