Trump whined repeatedly about bias, but their bias is less partisan than prurient. Americans tuned in looking for a spitball fight and the moderators were not about to disappoint them.The clash of ideas was a sideshow. This "debate" was an exchange of insults, egged on by the moderators. The only redeeming feature is that it will be hard to get lower than that.

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From The Nation

Four takeaways from whatever it was we watched last [Sunday] night.

The second presidential debate was preceded by a public handshake of a haunted Bill Clinton and a somber Melania Trump. It began with the two contenders refusing to shake hands. And spiraled down from there. The media will rake over the sordid highlights of a tawdry and ugly exchange. Some reflections.

IT'S OVER

With less than a month before the election and early voting already starting, this race is over. The most insightful comment of the night was from CNN's Van Jones, arguing that Clinton won because Trump did well in the debate. He held his own, and probably staunched the hemorrhaging of the last weeks. Republicans can't rid themselves of him and can't win with him.

"THIS IS WHO DONALD TRUMP IS."

Clinton's words were cutting and true. Trump dismissed his disgusting sexual boasting as "locker-room talk" which it surely was. But this also is inescapably who he is. He is not fit for the presidency. Full stop. Period.

Early on, the Clinton campaign made the strategic choice to target Trump personally -- his temperament, his ignorance, his vile divisiveness -- as the central issue of the campaign. This risked getting into a sty with a pig. In ads, in surrogates, in debates, on the stump, the Clinton campaign is more about how grotesque he is than about her vision or agenda. He provided inexhaustible material for her oppo research. The media joined the hunt. Trump lived down to the part. The result is an ugly and dispiriting campaign, illustrated by the personal exchanges last night. The strategy worked: Trump exhibited just who he is. Clinton will win the election -- but without a mandate, without a sense of possibility, without much of the joy that might be expected from election of the first woman president.

The mainstream media insists on trafficking in insults, not ideas. Last night's debate -- billed as a town-hall format where voters would ask the questions -- was hijacked from the start by the moderators -- Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. They immediately went gotcha: Trump's foul tape was their first question and their second, then e-mails, Wikileaks on Hillary's speeches, Trump's taxes, Hillary's comment on "deplorables," Trump's tweets. The citizen questions, as one commentator noted, were treated like Lifesavers, used to cleanse the mouth periodically when the goings got too foul. The citizens asked most of the substantive questions of the night: on health care, on taxing the rich, on the Supreme Court, on energy. But when a debate about ideas threatened to break out -- on taxes and growth, on health care, on energy policy -- the moderators rushed to bring it back to the gutter.

Trump whined repeatedly about their bias, but their bias is less partisan than prurient. Americans tuned in looking for a spitball fight and the moderators were not about to disappoint them.

THE CHOICE

The brief and rare exchanges on ideas were revealing. Trump repeated his commitment to the failed market fundamentalism of the past -- top-end tax cuts, deregulation, market competition to make health care affordable. Clinton reaffirmed her commitment to raising taxes on the top to invest in rebuilding the country. Both reiterated their opposition to our current trade policies. Trumpeting "the tremendous wealth right under our feet, Trump once more displayed his ignorance about climate change, which he has labeled a "hoax." Clinton, curiously, expressed apparent concern about low oil prices having a "damaging effect on oil companies," and touted energy independence, but went on to raise climate change and to repeat her mantra that we have the opportunity to become a "21st-century clean-energy superpower." The divide on the Supreme Court was stark: Trump promising to nominate future justices in the image of Scalia who will defend the Second Amendment, and Clinton promising nominees who will repeal Citizens United, revive the Voting Rights Act, and stand up to corporations.

On Syria, Trump's word salad was utterly incoherent, but raised a central issue at the very end: Why aren't we joining with Russia and Syria and Iran to take out ISIS, rather than trying to take on both our enemy and the enemies of our enemy at the same time? Clinton's harsh rhetoric on Russian "aggression" in Syria -- the Russians are there at the invitation of the government; we are the intruders aiding insurgents -- and the wild rants about Putin interfering with our elections will stoke fears about her hawkish predilections.

But the clash of ideas was a sideshow. This "debate" was an exchange of insults, egged on by the moderators. The only redeeming feature is that it will be hard to get lower than that.

Copyright - 2016 thenation.com -- distributed by Agence Global

Authors Website: http://www.ourfuture.org

Authors Bio:

Robert L. Borosage is the president of the Institute for America's Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America's Future. The organizations were launched by 100 prominent Americans to challenge the rightward drift in U.S. politics, and to develop the policies, message and issue campaigns to help forge an enduring majority for progressive change in America. Most recently, Borosage spearheaded the Campaign's 2006 issues book, StraightTalk 2006, providing activists and candidates with distilled messages on kitchen table concerns, from jobs to affordable health care. Borosage also helped to found and chairs the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee, developing a national base of small donors and skilled activists. Progressive Majority recruits, staffs, and funds progressive candidates for political office.


Mr. Borosage writes widely on political, economic and national security issues for a range of publications including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a Contributing Editor at The Nation magazine, and a regular contributor to The American Prospect magazine. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including Fox Morning News, RadioNation, National Public Radio, C-SPAN and Pacifica Radio. He teaches on presidential power and national security as an adjunct professor at American University's Washington School of Law.


A graduate of Yale Law School, with a graduate degree in International Affairs from George Washington University, Borosage left the practice of law to found the Center for National Security Studies in 1974. The Center focused on the tension between civil rights and the national security powers and prerogatives of the executive branch. It played a leading role in the efforts to investigate the intelligence agencies in the 1970s, curb their abuses, and hold them accountable in the future. At the Center, he helped to write and edit two books, The CIA File and The Lawless State.


In 1979, Borosage became Director of the Institute for Policy Studies, a research institute that drew its inspiration and fellowship from the major democratic movements of our time -- anti-war, women's, environmental and civil rights movements. Borosage helped to found and guide Countdown 88, which succeeded in winning the congressional ban on covert action against Nicaragua. Under Borosage's direction, the Institute expanded its fellowship, launched a successful publications program, and developed a new Washington School for congressional aides and public interest advocates.


In 1988, Borosage left the Institute to serve as senior issues advisor to the presidential campaign of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He traveled the country with Jackson, writing speeches, framing policy responses, and providing debate preparation and assistance. He went on to advise a range of progressive political campaigns, including those of Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, Barbara Boxer and Paul Wellstone. "