[Dr. Jonathan Doll usually blogs for the Huffington Post on school violence prevention issues and wellness issues. In this three-part series (connected to the debates), he will examine some aspects of faith and the importance of maintaining a positive perspective during the campaign season.]
As we collectively recover from the months-long election campaigns of Senator Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, a final look at their strengths is warranted. The third Presidential Debate was held on October 19, 2016 at the University of Las Vegas and was the last of the three debates. It was moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace who did an excellent job asking highly important, clarifying questions as well as being able to tame the audience’s desire at times to break the code of silence. Great job Mr. Wallace!!!
PRAYER NUMBER THREE FOR A PRESIDENT: Amid a large number of disengaged citizens and migrants to our great land alike, may the next president truly be a united president for the American people. May we stand behind and alongside this president and support her or him so that the office of the Presidency might have its largest contributions in the next four or eight years.
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First of all, the debate was a bit more lackluster than the other one. Perhaps it will be harder this time around for Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live to come up with apropos material for late night television. We shall see.
Overall, I think that it is important for us to imagine to entire group of undecided or yet uncommitted voters – and consider them as a whole. Regardless of your choice or my choice for the election, this group of American’s has a tough and perhaps yet unclear decision to make. For them alone, I would like to discuss a few strengths seen during the debate and a few weaknesses. Also, I’d like to base those observations around three more general strengths that each candidate might possess. Lastly, I will close by asking these potential voters and every other reader a final important question.
To begin with, let’s consider a small sample of basic strengths that Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump posses or have shown at times. You may certainly disagree with some of them, but I would suggest that any dissident to the strengths-viewpoint to come up with their own strengths for each candidate. Remember, everyone has strengths.
Clinton first, Trump second (To be fair, I’ll switch the order in part 2 of this article)
Clinton, Overall Strengths
- Cares about women and families as well as their attributes of healthiness.
- Lengthy history of demonstrating leadership. You don’t join the Senate and rise in ranks without tested leadership ability.
- Lastly, connects with many ethnicities, age groups, and women as a whole.
These character qualities of Secretary Clinton can be summarized by saying that Secretary Clinton has a holistic leadership style that can build bridges with many types of people. No doubt, that would be helpful in the White House and as Commander in Chief. Indeed, she would need to continue to build such connections across the aisle to live up to the idea that everyone across this great land is with her ideologically and stronger together as a nation.
Trump, Overall Strengths
- Boldness to create action.
- Charisma and the often shown ability to cut through political-speak and say what the heart of an issue might be.
- Business knowledge and management abilities which have had successful results in the working world.
Thinking forward, the character qualities of Mr. Trump show that he can display incredible ambition, focus, and desire necessary to make changes that can help American society as a whole. As previous debate discussion and analysis have both shown, Mr. Trump would need to continue to have amicable desire to hear and understand both sides of issues, make compromises, and lead in an effective way that can make America proud again.
With that fitting introduction, I’d like to move along to the third debate. As I said earlier, the debate may have lacked a spark plug during a few moments, but no doubt this has been a long process and both candidates gave it their best. Trump even tweeted at 3:00 am the following morning that he won the debate (it would have only been midnight in Las Vegas in case he stayed overnight there), but I would caution the potential president-elect to give his electronic devices and his burly index fingers a break at night. We can all use the sleep.
Let’s look at three strengths and three weaknesses seen during the third debate. Again, you might disagree (and I welcome it; send me an email), but my purpose for writing is to help nurture an empathic place for undecided voters to consider coming off the fence.
Let’s look at strengths to start with: Trump first and Clinton second
Trump Debate Strengths
- Less abrasive or imposing than in Debate #2, at least for the first half. SNL did a good sketch of this faux pas.
- Better at answering questions and not dodging topics with room for improvement.
- Better at talking to the American public, not just focusing on opposing various viewpoints.
We should all remember Governor Chris Christie when he would often take time to engage viewers of the Republican primary debates. His style was of talking directly to Americans like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chats, and it is a style that many a politician should try to emulate. Clinton Debate Strengths
- Positive and upbeat with demonstrated times of avoiding negative banter.
- Warmth displayed during debate. The American people need that!
- Focused while she was speaking on the importance of advocacy for women and women’s rights.
It’s important to remember that every American needs an advocate. On that note, when speaking of abortion Clinton cited that she did not want us as a nation to either force pregnancies or abortions like other countries she visited as Secretary of State (specifically Romania and China). Importantly, the logic tree of allowing choice can allows the wrong choices to potentially occur.
I will only make one statement in response to her words. If it is to be considered that a women forgo her child’s birth because a future child has a disability, is that not an example of discrimination before birth? Equity needs to considered in all our decisions indeed.
Clinton Debate Weaknesses
- Not seeing the persona of the other candidate and resolving only that he is a bad person. She trumpeted this a few times and it might have been more effective if softer or more indirect.
- Safety versus amnesty. Secretary Clinton prided that law abiding Mexican illegal aliens would given a wide berth towards citizenship, but it really said that American citizens must put up with the benefit of the doubt. In other words, every first crime by illegal aliens (leading to expulsion from the U.S.) also may punish rather than protect Americans.
- Budget and taxes. Make no mistake, both candidate have made a lot of promises in the budget area and the future candidate will have to make healthy compromises that will work for the best of the nation as a whole.
Trump Debate Weaknesses
- Aleppo. Mr. Trump’s responses to Mr. Chris Wallace’s repeated questions about Aleppo, Syria still seemed obtuse, unwieldy or just plain wrong. Truth: there are thousands and thousands of safe Syrian refugees who need to be granted citizenship just like many other oppressed peoples before them. To not recognize this point can only illustrate a person’s unwillingness to see equity in this area.
- Immigration. I think Mr. Trump’s vision here is clouded. I’d like to hear him talking about what would happen two years after a wall is erected or two years after he helps the congress to straighten out immigration policy and its reality. Quit showing such a view of the immediate present at the cost of having a long range plan.
- Budget and taxes. As I said, Mr. Wallace aptly said that neither Mr. Trump’s nor Secretary Clinton’s budgetary numbers yet were able to add up and have an impact on the growing deficit. I suggest that both candidates and ultimately the winner among them evaluate these plans a little bit more and be open to change.
Conclusion
Yes, it is a tough election and my heart goes out to any undecided or still uncommitted voters across this land. The job is yours to help all of us elect a new president. May the best President win!
And by the way, I want to close with a personal thought and then my final question. Those thought is this: as much as we may like or dislike a candidate, they may not end up winning or losing as we desire it. So we should each be more open to possibilities because even in the Oval Office an incredible process of maturation and growth has occurred for every predecessor President, and this will election’s winner will be no different.
The final question:
Have you voted?
If not, make a promise to vote and tell someone and then do it. Keep your promise. And for those of us who have voted, consider making a 2016 election promise to be more positive about American politics and look for the positives (rather than the negatives) as a rule. Truth: there will always be positives, we just have to look for them.
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Dr. Jonathan Doll is the author of the book, Ending School Shootings: School and District Tools for Prevention and Action. He is a registered voter with no allegiance to either party, but votes his conscience every 4 years. His opinions are his own.