re: #51 Blind Frog Belly White

And yet, he DID hold center stage, and that was his undoing. Both Holt and to an even greater extent Clinton just let him talk. Hillary pushed a few buttons to get him mad, and Holt asked completely predictable questions, and Trump turned into a babbling mess onstage.

Two things that helped him in the GOP Primary debates screwed him last night:

First, the Primary debates had multiple participants, so Trump only had to speak when he wanted to, and he could let the other guys talk when he didn’t. Thus, he limited his time on camera to when he CHOSE TO BE on camera, and only spoke when he chose to. Last night, he was on camera THE WHOLE TIME. And he couldn’t stand back and let the others talk when he had nothing to say. He had to answer.

Second, the Primary debates had poorly controlled, raucous, partisan audiences, while the audience last night had agreed to ‘no applause, no reaction’. All his applause lines dropped into silence. He feeds on the applause, and that’s why his rallies are effective - he’s reading the audience. When the audience is silent, it tells him nothing about how well he’s doing.

You make some good observations about how the atmosphere of the primary debates which helped him there proved to be his undoing last night. Next debate should be interesting since it’s Townhall format. He’ll have some friendlies there but some not so friendlies. I’m hoping he gets a tough question to really throw him off. I’m hoping someone calls attention to his hypocrisy on trade. He loves to make himself to be Mr. Anti-free trade yet his brands are all made overseas.