The Final Presidential Debate
Joe Raedle/Pool via AP
The final presidential debate was held last night and it was easily both candidates best debate. Looking at each segment of the debate, we're going to breakdown the biggest hits and misses, who won each segment, and talk about what the performances mean going forward.
Segment 1 – Supreme Court
The key points for Donald Trump in this one were going after the pro-lifers and 2nd amendment defenders. He was sure to stay on message about only wanting to appoint pro-life and gun supporting Justices. While he did maintain his cool and did not use any personal insults during this portion of the debate, he did use dangerous rhetoric around abortions, claiming women were having 9th month abortions and evading Roe v. Wade.
Hillary Clinton opened by appealing to everyone's best interests and telling the current Senate members to do their job in relation to President Obama's current nomination, Merrick Garland. She continued by arguing against Mr. Trump's claim that she wanted to abolish gun rights by stating she wants more regulations and to close the existing loopholes. In relation to the abortion rights, Senator Clinton defended the mother's rights to maintaining her own health during the pregnancy.
At the end of this segment, I felt Trump won simply by not attacking Clinton and maintaining his composure. Clinton stayed strong.
Segment 2 – Immigration
This segment was almost exclusively dominated by Trump in terms of talking points, but not in a good way. Trump started by continuing his argument for a wall at the Mexican border, and claiming there were some "bad hombres" over there. That comment will not sit well with any hispanic demographic that was still undecided. Hillary followed that up with a subtle use of Holocaustic imagery in reference to Trump wanting to deport a lot of the immigrant population. It was chilling and very effective. Trump attacked Clinton on her own claims of building a wall, as well as her wanting open borders. Clinton defended against both claims. The real critical point of this segment was Trump becoming unhinged when Clinton claimed that Vladimir Putin wanted Trump in office because he wants a "puppet" in the White House. Trump repeatedly claimed "I'm not a puppet" and never fully recovered from the comment. This was the turning point of the entire debate. Clinton took a lot of steam from him here.
Segment 3 – Economy
Hillary grew the lead in this segment. Not only did she thoroughly explain her position and how she wants to build the economy, but Trump did not. He sounded completely ignorant to the issue and continued his self-congratulatory bullshit. He also claimed India and China were growing at 7-8% while the US was around 1%. India and China are farther behind in their development, meaning their economic booms are still happening. It was a completely misguided statement. Trump also attacked Clinton on her experience, to which she took great offense. She destroyed his experience compared to her, referencing his time on a reality show while she was in the decision room when the military killed Osama Bin Laden.
Segment 4 – Fitness to be President
Trump continued his downward spiral by continuing his rhetoric about it being a rigged election and ironically claiming that Clinton has been inciting violence among his supporters. Trump did not hit hard enough on the WikiLeaks issue and Hillary absolutely destroyed him on his issues with women. She cast a vision for the future that Trump just could not project. Hillary continued the assault by using President Obama's claims that trump should stop whining about the election as well.
Segment 5 – Foreign Hotspots
Hillary again pushed the idea that Trump is operating in his own fantasy world. The issue of Aleppo came up and again, Trump seemed ignorant to the issue. He gave misinformation and Clinton defended the use of a no-strike zone in the region. No real fireworks here.
Segment 6 – National Debt
The big takeaway here is Trump's claim that he will add 25 million jobs over a 10 year period. It is one of the most unrealistic goals he has in my opinion. Not only is it exceptionally extreme, but he has yet to lay out a plan to get it done outside of "better deals". It's a total farce.
One Minute Last Question
Hillary used this time to create a vision toward the future and discuss protecting human rights.
Trump used this time to attack Hillary, and didn't touch on any sort of plan for the future. It was a bad look.
All in all, this was Hillary's most dominate appearance since the general election process began and she was aggressive going after Trump. She was strong throughout, and largely ignored his petulance. Trump's first 30 minutes were his strongest yet, however once he became bothered, he reverted back to his normal self. Trump says he is not sure if he will accept the results, while his campaign says otherwise. This would be unprecedented if he goes against the result, but that is to be determined. I think Hillary locked up the election, however with just short of 3 weeks left until the election, anything is possible this year.
Author sportsmodernPosted on October 20, 2016 Categories Politics, UncategorizedTags Democrat, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Politics, RepublicanLeave a comment on The Final Presidential Debate
Louisville 24, Duke 14 Game Notes
Getty Images/Andy Lyons
I know it's the middle of the season, but I've decided to start a weekly post on my thoughts of the Louisville game from that week, as well as some big picture notes.
The closest thing to Duke's offense has to be dental surgery. Painful and slow. But, a win is a win and right now, that's all Louisville needs to do. All the following notes are in order of the game, so it should be easy to follow along.
Papa John. What an asshole. Gave out free trash pizza though.
Lamar had one of the best pass fakes ever. Tucked the ball and completely sold the "I gave the ball to the running back and now I'm chillin" look after. Only the end wasn't fooled, and unfortunately Lamar overthrew the receiver. But it was a RIDICULOUS fake.
Again, ridiculous play. Lamar's pass to Seth Dawkins down the middle of the field was on a rope, thrown off his back foot, all while getting hit by a defender. Lamar is special, but more on that later.
Brandon Radcliffe had a great first half (and game, fumble aside). He showed great vision, power, and patience.
Duke's defense was the first defense to really limit the offense. Clemson's offense was forced to play with us because their defense was letting Lamar do Lamar things after the chokehold from hell.
Daww. Engagement.
Jaire Alexander continues to impress on special teams. Not entirely sure why people keep kicking to him.
If you had told me before the game that a skill position player would score an 80 yard touchdown, Jeremy Smith probably would have been the last guy on my list. Even below the backups and freshmen. The run came on a blitz, which took a lot of defenders out of it, but man, it was crazy.
This was definitely Lamar's most inaccurate game. He was over and under throwing the receivers and struggled on a communication with a couple routes with the receivers. That being said, I thought it was his most disciplined game. He took what was given to him and didn't make the stupid decisions many true sophomore quarterbacks make.
There were several plays that proved to me that Lamar is the most elusive man in sports. The way he gets away from defenders is something I can't recall seeing. It's insane.
Duke's offensive playbook is 7 plays. Read option (always to the running back), hand off to the running back, rollout throw on third down ONLY, punt, field goal, quarterback punt, and quarterback fake punt. That's it.
Lamar learned from the Clemson game. There was a read option where the defender came to blow him up after the handoff to the running back, and Lamar spun away from the contact. It was one of his smartest moments of the game.
We have no kicker. Where's John Wallace when you need him?
The defense played a tremendous game. They were asked to maintain their poise and stamina while being on the field for 15 minutes longer, defending the same 3 plays all game. Huge credit to Grantham for his work with the defense.
I felt like Cutcliffe might have given the rest of the country the blueprint to beating this team. We had more talent, and that won out. But if a more talented team takes that plan, Louisville could be in trouble.
I feel bad for #31. My immediate thought went back to the 2005 Rutgers game with William Gay. It wasn't such a black and white call as then, but it was similar. I never wish that on any kid. We got lucky.
Additionally, we have a handful of doomsday fans in the fanbase. "Lamar's Heisman is gone" and "We lost all hope at the playoffs" were things that I saw online. Firstly, we played on Friday before basically everyone else. Secondly, Lamar finished with over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. Ask a normal quarterback if that's a game he'd take. And lastly, as seen in the Ohio State and Clemson games, anyone can be beaten on any day. Best thing that can happen for us is for Washington to lose, Ohio State and/or Michigan to lose a game before they play at the end of the season, and if somebody could knock off Alabama that would be great.
Most importantly, and firstly, we have to win our games. NC State, you're next.
Author sportsmodernPosted on October 16, 2016 Categories College FootballTags Football, LouisvilleLeave a comment on Louisville 24, Duke 14 Game Notes