WILL THIS BE THE SUPER BOWL OF DEBATES, OR THE BEST EPISODE OF THREE STOOGES EVAH?

My opinion:

Trump beat Hillary on the Economy and on Foreign Affairs. She dug in on her experience in negotiating the Iran treaty. That was a lose for her. She dug in on her need to tax and spend. That is a lose for her.

Trump did VERY VERY POORLY on the issue of Race. He was served up a big possible win there, and he did not explain his experience with the Mar-A-Lago Country Club in Palm Beach, FL, where HE INSISTED ON INCLUDING BLACKS AND JEWS AS MEMBERS at a time when such open membership was not nearly as common as it is today.

The fact that he did so poorly in framing what should have been an easy win for him is very sad. He is going to get HAMMERED mercilessly on race for the next three weeks. 

MERCILESSLY.

The only thing Trump has on his side when it comes to race (in the aftermath of his poor performance on this subject) is the fact that the American people, in general, are entirely sick of the subject.

In total, Trump won with his people. Hillary won with the media. We can only hope that the media OVERPLAYS IT'S HAND. They probably will.

The one good thing Trump did in this debate is mention the swing states and their issues repeatedly. He won himself one or two swings states tonight.

That is HUGE.

HILLARY CHOKES ON HUMA'S SQUIRT

Hillary had just finished eating out with Huma. They ordered #69 on the menu. They just weren't in the mood for the Shish-Kabab. They never are.

Anyway, the meal Hillary shared with Huma got a little messy, and left her with a residual irritation in the back of her throat.

Many of you out there might understand what I mean.

Listen, as Hillary struggles to clear the, er, mucous off her adenoids.

Dr. Drew's Show Canceled. Why?

The Clinton Machine strikes again?  You decide.

First, here is what Dr. Drew (board-certified internist, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, former Medical Director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California, staff member at Huntington Memorial Hospital, and a private practitioner), said about Hillary Clinton's health:


Excerpt from this article in the Conservative Tribune:

CNN spin-off HLN announced this week the cancellation of Dr. Drew Pinsky’s eponymous program, and some suspected that Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had orchestrated this sudden removal of the board-certified medicine specialist and TV personality from the public sphere.

“Dr. Drew and I have mutually agreed to air the final episode his show on September 22,” CNN vice president Ken Jautz, who managed HLN, explained in a statement.

The network vice president went on to praise Pinsky for his “creative shows,” “hard work” and “distinctive programming,” but stopped short of revealing the exact reason for the show’s cancellation....

Even CNN Admits That Hillary's Claims...

...of ISIS's use of Donald Trump videos to recruit has no evidence to back up Hillary's claim.

From CNN:

CNN's Reality Check Team looked into this statement and found that although it is difficult to track all of ISIS' communication, there is no current evidence that backs up Clinton's claims about a specific video that features Trump.

Enjoy this Donald Trump recruitment video (hat tip to Joe Conservative of Political Tea Leaves:

UPDATED --- Hillary Says, "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material." --- I Don't Think That is Even Possible

I think pretty much everyone agrees that Hillary's statement sounds like a bald-faced lie.

However, not only does it sound like a lie, I don't think it is even possible

I mean, like, literally, I do not think it is possible for the Secretary of State to NEVER send emails that are not classified.

First, what is the Secretary of State?

The Secretary of State is a senior official of the federal government of the United States of America heading the U.S. Department of State, principally concerned with foreign affairs and is considered to be the U.S. government's equivalent of a Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is a member of the President's Cabinet, the National Security Council, and is the highest-ranking appointed executive branch official both in the presidential line of succession and the order of precedence.

Additionally:

The specific duties of the Secretary of State include: 

Organizes and supervises the entire United States Department of State and the United States Foreign Service. 

Advises the President on matters relating to U.S. foreign policy, including the appointment of diplomatic representatives to other nations, and on the acceptance or dismissal of representatives from other nations. 

Participates in high-level negotiations with other countries, either bilaterally or as part of an international conference or organization, or appoints representatives to do so. This includes the negotiation of international treaties and other agreements. 

Responsible for overall direction, coordination, and supervision of interdepartmental activities of the U.S. Government overseas. 

Providing information and services to U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad, including providing credentials in the form of passports and visas. 

Supervises the United States immigration policy abroad. Communicates issues relating the United States foreign policy to Congress and to U.S. citizens.

Sorry to be pedantic here. I'm sure we all know this, but here's something we might never think about, unless we were working at such a level ourselves:

The reason information is classified is, almost always, because we want to hide it from our enemies. For the most part our enemies are overseas.

This means the Secretary of State's playing field is literally among our enemies. Sure we put on a show of getting along with them. The Secretary of State is the Executive over all diplomatic relations, so her job is to put a polite face on difficult discussions of International Policy.

But in order to do that, the Secretary of State needs to know what the President's goals are, and how to achieve them while not giving away too much information, or any other valuable asset.

In the planning stages, such strategic planning/thinking has to be done through the application of Game Theory and inventive Dialectic. It must be creative and unburdened by concern for leaks of information. Such thinking requires a wide latitude for what might, in other circumstances, be considered mispeaks or mistakes.

The job of the Secretary of State is quite literally to trade in obfuscation in the pursuit of negotiating for the achievement of the interests of the United States abroad.

Hiding information is the essence of negotiation.

The process of choosing what to hide and what to reveal requires Classified discussion.

As such, it would seem only reasonable that every single communication from the Secretary of State to anyone in a high position within the Administration, or over seas, whether that person would be a diplomat, or a foreign Head of State, would necessarily be considered CLASSIFIED, until it was deemed to be not classified.

The process of De-Classifying such communications would require a thoughtful assessment of the information in the email by a person who had a keen understanding of all the factors at play. In some cases, there may be dozens of factors, or even hundreds. Therefore, the process of De-Classifying, or redacting a document takes a lot of time.

It is not possible to be strategic and creative at the same time as one is busy redacting/censoring themselves.

The only exception to this might be notes of Congratulations of Sympathy, which might be expressed via email, and simultaneously released to the Press.

The Secretary must communicate with the President. The President's emails, if they are at all spontaneous, likewise, could not be considered anything other Classified, until they were De-Classified.

Tell me. Am I off here? Is it possible that the whole batch of email communications from the Secretary of State could, even possibly, be considered Unclassified, even as they are being sent out?

---

Another thought: So, let's assume it's true Hilary never sent a single email containing Classified Information. Well, ok. BUT DID ANYONE EVER SEND HILARY ANY CLASSIFIED INFORMATION?

If so, then that is on her server.

---

UPDATED ---

Before Hillary Clinton’s news conference yesterday, Jen Psaki, the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, stated that the White House could not immediately release the former Secretary of State’s emails because “it will take several months” to redact all the classified things she sent. 

Despite this, Ms. Clinton then stated in her press conference, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”