Sunday, May 29, 2016

2016 Presidential Debates, Sanders, Trump and Clinton.

There have been 12 Republican Presidential debates this season and nine forums. I remember when you were lucky if you got any debates. There is NO requirement that people hold debates, it is a tactical decision and always has been. In fact, if it were not for the League of Women Voters, we would have had a lot fewer debates in the past 40 years; unfortunately, you don't hear about that organization too often anymore. It did a lot of good at examining issues from all sides.

Recently, Trump was asked if he would consider debating Sanders on the Jimmy Kimmel show. YouTube - Donald Trump is Willing to Debate Bernie Sanders.  Watch the video, the statement that was made from Sanders began with the fact that Hillary Clinton had promised to debate Sanders; but, had backed out. Trump said he would consider it if a lot of money went to charity. Trump had previously asked a channel to pay around 10 million if they wanted him to go to the debate with the Republican candidates because he was bringing great ratings and they were making millions off of the debates.

Later Trump said that he would not debate Sanders because Sanders wasn't going to win the nomination and he saw no point. Trump had made it clear in his comment that if they could come to an agreement on the money and the charity, he would debate him; but, there is no evidence that they did come to any agreement or that anyone offered the money he had previously said he would require. Not Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC or NBC came out in public and offered to make the deal, not one. Since then the media has gone wild crying that Trump had said he would and then declined to debate Sanders. By the way, the Democrats have held nine debates. The Democratic debates have had half the viewership and were not shown during premium time slots. In fact, Sanders has complained that the DNC has intentionally had the debates at times when they were the least likely to be watched.

It is to Trumps advantage not to debate Sanders unless Sanders wins his party's nomination. If Trump debates Sanders, how does it help him win the Republican nomination? Sanders wants the debate because if he can best Trump, he might have a better chance against Hillary Clinton. Believe me, the last thing that Clinton wanted was a Sanders Trump debate, she hasn't even kept the agreement with Sanders to hold a debate this month and none is scheduled.

So, here is the question. Why isn't the media pushing Clinton to debate Sanders? Better yet, what prevents the three of them debating? It should be noted that it is also not to Trump's advantage to debate Hillary without Sanders in the debate.  That would only increase her support at the expense of Sanders. Another way to put this is whoever Trump debated would have an advantage in the Democratic primaries.

Do you remember when Trump did not attend one of the Republican debates because they would not give their money to charity? That was big news with all the media asking if it would backfire on him, it did not, the ratings of the debate that he skipped were half that of prior debates. If "The Walking Dead" lost half it's viewership, it would be off the air. The Democratic debates have not scored as well as reruns. Love him or hate him; but, Trump makes ratings and revenue for the media go up.

Now, I want you to see how a mind like mine works on a problem like this. If I were Trump, I would wait until a Democratic nominee was finalized and then challenge them to a debate, immediately. If Clinton is the eventual nominee then I would say, "You refused to debate Sanders in May, will you refuse to debate me?" Her predictable response would be, "Well, you refused to debate him in May too" and the response to that is, "I never ran against him, you did." I the alternative, if she does debate Sanders this month, then Trump's first statement after Clinton wins the nomination should be, "You debated Sanders, do you have the integrity to debate me too". Here is the logic, by acting first, you push your opponent to respond and the slower the response,, the more you learn about them and the weaker is their preparedness. I have an equally complex series of scenarios for a Sander nomination. The point is that this is a chess game, chess is based on strategy and was the game of kings. It was used to train princes to think ahead, to plan to see moves ahead. Strategic thinking is a way of life, it is an approach to how you view the world. Trump is more strategic than Clinton or Sanders.

The truth is, the media and establishment are lying to themselves. Trump can beat Clinton, I am not sure if he can beat Sanders. Trump and Sanders supporters are the same people. Neither supports the establishment, neither believes the media and both are middle class and working class people who have been hurt by the changes in the country and our economy. At the beginning of this race I said I hoped it would be Trump versus Sanders. The establishment oligarchy wanted it to be Bush vs. Clinton, because either outcome meant they remained in control.

If the media cared about the Trump Sanders debate, all they have to do is publically announce that they are willing to pay $15 million to a charity that takes care of veterans. Trump could not then refuse. It is not a complicated thing to do; but, you will not see the media, not CNN, not Fox, not CBS, not NBC and not ABC offer to do that even though they will make a profit. The media does not want a Trump Sanders debate at the moment, as it does not help the one candidate that is still in the race and is owned by the globalists corporations that comprise the 6 companies that own over 90% of all the media.


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