Since it’s midterm time let me give each candidate a letter grade for last night’s debate performance. Donald gets a B- and Hillary gets her usual F, for her collectivist ideology, trickle-down economics, and continued warmongering.
Donald missed several opportunities to hit a grand slam for the night, which would’ve turned his performance into an A+. Let me explain.
On the Supreme Court, Donald should’ve said he would make sure that the American people’s individual rights would be protected unlike his opponent who supports the national security state and all the attempts to whittle away at the Bill of Rights. Donald should’ve said he would only appoint judges who are pro-liberty and pro-free enterprise, the foundation of America’s prosperity. As far as the abortion issue is concerned, Donald correctly pointed out that abortion issues should be left to the states. However, he missed several opportunities to show Hillary’s callousness toward the unborn. He should have pointed out that abortion is, no matter how Hillary wants to spin it, an act of destroying a human life. At one point in the debate Hilary said there is involuntary abortions occurring in the world. Donald should’ve pounced on that and said are voluntary abortions any better, because both have the same end result, the destruction of human life.
On immigration Trump correctly pointed out that there should be no amnesty for undocumented immigrants. He should’ve said there should be no birthright citizenship either. Citizenship should only be granted to native-born Americans whose parents are citizens and immigrants who go through the process to become legal citizens. As far as illegal immigrants are concerned, Donald should have offered the grand compromise. Illegal immigrants will not be deported unless they commit a crime. However, because they are here working or looking for work, opened up businesses or plan to open up businesses, they will be considered permanent guest residents and therefore ineligible to become citizens, because they did not follow the rules like millions of people who came to America legally.
On the economy Hillary believes in more government spending, which she characterizes as “investment”, a totally erroneous concept. Governments do not invest individuals and businesses invest, i.e., they risk their own money to generate income and capital gains. Donald should’ve said Hillary’s “plans” remind him of the failed Soviet Union which rolled out five-year plans periodically and their economy kept on sinking and sinking and sinking. Donald should’ve said the free enterprise system is the great engine of prosperity, creating jobs and lifting living standards for everyone who is productive. In addition, Donald obviously didn’t read my open memo to him regarding the Federal Reserve and how it has distorted the economy by keeping interest rates at close to 0% for so long. He could have pointed out that Hillary supports the massive distribution of income from Main Street to Wall Street because of the Fed’s zero interest rate policies. If Donald had said that, the headline today would be “Hillary hates savers and supports the redistribution of income from Main Street to Wall Street.”
As far as fitness to be president goes, Donald should’ve pointed out that Hillary is on heavy-duty medication and had a frightening episode on 9/11, where a video shows her virtually collapsing as she tried to get into her van. The American people have the right to know if both of us are fit – physically and mentally – to serve in the Oval Office for the next four years. We should both take comprehensive physicals and cognitive exams immediately and the results should be reported to the American people immediately. Donald should also have pointed out that any top official of a business who used a private server would be fired and probably sued for transmitting proprietary information to associates and subordinates.
As far as foreign policy and so-called hotspots around the world, Donald should’ve pointed out our bipartisan interventionist foreign policies have caused death and destruction in the Middle East and increased the national debt by trillions of dollars. He should’ve said we are not the policeman of the world and all these alliances that Hillary supports our tripwires, which could get us involved in regional conflicts, and possibly start another world war. Donald should’ve pointed out that Hillary was Secretary of State and yet she’s too quick to use military options instead of diplomacy to end the conflicts in the Middle East. Thus, Donald should’ve pointed out, the same people who got us into this mess in the first place surround Hillary and what did Albert Einstein say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Donald should’ve said the American people always vote for the “peace “candidate like LBJ in 1964 Obama in 2008. There could not be a more stark difference between Hilary and me. I want a peaceful world where diplomacy is practiced to end conflicts while Hillary wants to use the military to resolve disputes around the world.
Donald missed a huge opportunity in the last segment to discuss why entitlements should be reined in, especially for wealthy Americans like Clinton family and me. He should’ve said why should people with substantial wealth continue to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits? He could’ve said that if people want to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent upper income people like all the super wealthy that support her should give up their entitlements benefits. But more importantly, Donald should’ve taken a courageous stand saying no investment company could create a program like both Social Security and Medicare, because the Securities and Exchange Commission would close them down for violating their rules regarding honest business practices. He could’ve pointed out how both programs are flawed and we need to allow young people to save more for their retirement instead of relying on a flawed system. Donald also could’ve pointed out that our progressive income tax punishes people for being more successful– the more people learn the greater the tax rate that the IRS imposes on. This is morally untenable. In fact, Donald could’ve pointed out the country prospered for well over 100 years before we had an income tax and we should consider phasing out the income tax over the next several years. All Hilary wants to do is use the incomes of very successful people to serve as a cash cow for her collectivist vision for America – more spending, more spending, which means more dependence on the federal government. Donald should’ve pointed out that Hillary’s agenda will make more Americans dependent upon the federal government, which in turn means more taxes and regulations. Donald also could’ve pointed out that Hillary’s agenda is very simple; she wants to turn America into one big social welfare agency. Donald had an opportunity to point out that Hillary asserts her whole mission in life is to help other people. Now that Hillary and her family have a foundation, she should be running her foundation rather than wanting to run the American people’s lives.
If Donald had pointed out that the welfare-warfare state experiment for the past hundred plus years has failed the American people by running up more than $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities, having troops in more than 100 countries and spending more on the military than the next nine largest countries in the world, Donald would be getting votes from the Libertarian and Green parties and independents who are sick and tired of people like Hilary who want to boss the American people around. In other words, if Donald had been better prepped he would win the presidency in a landslide. November 8 will tell if his campaign strategy, if we can call it that, was successful.