As a person who is not interested in politics, I have watched both of presidential debates in order to keep track with the public (watching the second one right now). I don't have much background knowledge on American politics or the two candidates (nor voting rights sadly). I simply wanted to learn something about how presidents are elected through debates and how presidential candidates behave in such important events. My very first impression on Donald Trump was his interruptions. In the first debate, he interrupted both Hillary and host for over 50 times. What I felt was his lack of confidence. He was so eager to express his ideas and defend himself. However, these interruptions did not make good impressions. Mr. Trump failed to use concrete evidence or convincible examples to prove his opinions which made his statements more like jokes. Beginning with "Let me tell you something", Donald Trump often argued with the host since he never answered questions directly. These actions really made me to question his quality. Another technique Donald Trump loved to use was to attack different groups of people. In the first debate, he mentioned China for eight times and Mexico for seven times. He blamed China as the main cause of global warming. He blamed Russians as hackers. These are absolutely absurd statements to me personally. Countries are so connected in the world right now that it is impossible to isolate any one of them. I cannot believe how he is going to develop inter-country relationships if he is elected. I was also shocked at his disrespect on females in the first presidential debate. Even though he did not say it publicly, Donald Trump apparently looked down on Hillary Clinton since she is a woman. He believed that man should rule the world and I don't know how he is going to win the debate with this attitude.
But it doesn't mean that I totally support Hillary Clinton. Since her husband used to be the president, she has more experiences in building good public image. I can tell from the debates that she is polite, respectful, and logical, but I am more concerned about whether she is consistent in and out of the spotlight. Due to Bill Clinton's scandal, Hillary perfectly knew how important it was to have a good image in public media. In both debates, she also proposed many wonderful plans on how to make the United States better but we all know politicians love to exaggerate their abilities. Especially after private emails exposed by WikiLeaks, the public began to hesitate on Hillary whether she is as consistent. She might be good at constructing image and debating, but a President should be far more excellent. Through the two debates, I do have a lean on Hillary Clinton just based on their performances, but she is also not a perfect candidate to me. I will try to be updated with presidential elections more often and if there is anything wrong in this blog, please correct me.
I actually watched the debates also not necessarily for political reasons but for sociological ones. Though I do have voting rights and have an opinion in mind, I realize how much of my media intake comes from biased sources. I wanted to see a relatively fair debate with the actual candidates rather than second hand accounts about the caricatures much of media makes them out to be. I also tried to play devil's advocate to my own opinion and try to understand why others might vote for the other candidate. Quite frankly, I think I could see why someone would take either side, but I was more impressed with the moderator for not losing his temper than I was with anything else in the debate.
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