The debate's losers?
The American people, as neither candidate spoke at length about anything but the flaws of the other.

Trump also a loser.
Donald Trump’s debate played well with his small base of support but did nothing to change the direction of the election.
He gave his base of die-hard supporters the performance they've long wanted, finally jumping on Clinton for decades old sex scandals of her husband.
 Trump employed every tactic available to try to move past that video. He showed little contrition and no restraint.
That will thrill his base supporters. But, the decades old sex scandals - which have already been investigated - hold little interest to the public at large. It speaks volumes about how out of touch Trump and his supporters are with the US electorate that they were ecstatic about his debate performance, but he still lost.

The post-debate polls are more evidence that lines of support in the presidential election have crystallized. Hillary Clinton continues to lead. Trump did everything that his supporters wanted in the debate, and he still lost. **

 But Trump offered nothing for the broader audience of Americans beyond the dyed in the wool Clinton haters.
He just looked crazy.



**The CNN/ORC poll of debate watchers gave Clinton another strong victory.CNN reported, “Donald Trump exceeded expectations, but Hillary Clinton won the second presidential debate, according to a CNN / ORC poll of debate watchers. The results showed a clear victory for Clinton, with 57% saying Clinton won, as opposed to 34% for Trump.”

TheYouGov poll, which gave Clinton a much smaller victory in the first debate, showed Clinton registering a bigger victory in the second debate, “According to YouGov’s post-debate poll, which interviewed 812 registered voters who watched the debate, Hillary Clinton won the debate against Donald Trump by 47% to 42%. Clinton narrowly won undecideds 44% to 41%. She was also considered “more Presidential” by a 57% to 31% margin. There was a gender gap, however: women though Clinton won by 50-38%, while men thought Trump won by 46-43%.”

What should trouble Republicans is that the number of people who thought Trump won the debate is right in line with his core level of support. Trump’s baseline of support is between 34% and 38%. By this metric, he scored at the low end of his baseline.


http://www.politicususa.com/2016/10/10/post-debate-polls-hillary-clinton-crushed-donald-trump-time.html


 

Last edited by Goose (10/10/2016 11:03 am)

Note to Drumpf: Don't mess with Buffett

And I don't mean Jimmy (although Jimmy Buffett also thinks Drumpf is a jerk and not qualified to be president).

Apparently, Warren Buffett watched the second debate and didn't take too kindly to Drumpf's remarks concerning Buffett's tax liability and payment.


Warren Buffett to Trump: 'I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944'

Warren Buffett schooled Donald Trump on Monday about the taxes of a billionaire.

"Mr. Trump says he knows more about taxes than any other human. He has not seen my income tax returns. But I am happy to give him the facts," Buffett said in a statement.

Buffett was responding to an exchange in Sunday's debate in which Clinton called on Trump to release his tax returns. Clinton has blasted Trump for using the tax code aggressively to avoid paying federal income tax.

"Many of her friends took bigger deductions. Warren Buffett took a massive deduction," Trump said.

On Monday, Buffett said that in 2015, he reported an adjusted gross income of $11.6 million and took close to $5.5 million in total deductions. The majority of those (nearly $3.5 million) reflected allowable charitable contributions.

He went on to say that he paid nearly $1.9 million in federal income taxes last year. That gives him an effective federal income tax rate of about 16%.

Indeed, Buffett added, "I have paid federal income tax every year since 1944, when I was 13. (Though, being a slow starter, I owed only $7 in tax that year.) I have copies of all 72 of my returns and none uses a carryforward."

Though Trump has yet to release any of his tax returns, the top pages of his state tax returns from 1995 were released anonymously. And they show that he reported $916 million in net operating losses that he was carrying forward.

That loss could have been used to offset much of Trump's tax liability for many years, potentially even reducing it to zero. But unless he releases his tax returns it's impossible to say for sure.

Buffett digs the knife deeper on charitable contributions

Buffett also said in his statement that the charitable deductions he took in 2015 don't reflect the half of what he gave to charity last year.

"The total charitable contributions I made during the year were $2,858,057,970, of which more than $2.85 billion were not taken as deductions and never will be. Tax law properly limits charitable deductions."

Generally speaking, taxpayers can't claim charitable deductions that exceed a certain percentage of their AGI (typically between 20% and 50%, depending on what is being donated).

"In Buffett's case, his income will never be big enough to allow him to deduct all of his billions of dollars of donations," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

In 2010, Buffett along with Bill and Melinda Gates launched the Giving Pledge. They and fellow billionaires who join, pledge to give away most of their wealth during their lifetime and in their wills.

This past July, Buffett pledged $2.9 billion worth of stock in his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA).

Trump has not provided any proof of his charitable giving, though he boasts of it often. Again his tax returns would offer a window into the amount of money he gives away in a given year.

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 10, 2016: 12:58 PM ET

I lied . . . Consider it a Drumpf kinda verbal slip up. I just couldn't pass on posting this Drumpf oopsie-do contradiction:


Donald Trump once trashed the Bill Clinton accusers he deployed at the debate

Hours before the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Donald Trump appeared with women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual wrongdoing.

Donald Trump may have described Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Kathy Shelton as “very courageous women” at Sunday night’s pre-debate press conference, but the businessman hasn’t always had such kind words for Bill Clinton’s accusers.

ABC News on Sunday dug up a 1998 interview in which the would-be Republican presidential nominee described Jones and others who accused then President Clinton of sexual misconduct as “unattractive” and “a terrible group of people.”

“It’s like it’s from hell,” Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto in August 1998 of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the accusations that followed in its wake. He even expressed sympathy for the embattled president, arguing that Clinton was “really a victim himself.”

But on Sunday, Trump was determined to paint Clinton as a villain.

This was an apparent attempt to spin a 2005 recording that leaked to the Washington Post on Friday. In the videotape, Trump was caught crassly boasting that he could kiss and grope whomever he wanted because he’s “a star.” The scandal prompted significant backlash from within the Republican Party.

In a video apology issued Friday night, Trump argued that “there is a big difference between the words and actions of other people,” insisting that he only “said some foolish things” while “Bill Clinton has actually abused women.”

Trump doubled down on the Clinton counterpunch by inviting a group of women who have accused the former president of sexual harassment and assault to Sunday night’s debate against his wife, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

And, according to the Washington Post, Trump’s campaign even attempted to seat the women prominently in his family box at the debate as a means of intimidating the Clintons. Debate commission officials reportedly squashed the scheme at the last minute, warning the Trump camp that security would remove the women if they tried to sit in the candidate’s elevated family box.

“We were going to put the four women in the VIP box,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the Post of the plan, which was reportedly concocted by Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner. “We had it all set. We wanted to have them shake hands with Bill, to see if Bill would shake hands with them.”

After appearing alongside the Republican candidate at a pre-debate press conference, the women were forced to sit with the rest of the audience, avoiding the on-air confrontation Trump’s campaign apparently desired.