In the first Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton came off as well prepared and a good sport, while Donald Trump was rude and impatient.
Some of the best things that Hillary Clinton did in this debate, and the things that left her head and shoulders above Donald Trump, were her facial expressions and body language. While Donald Trump interrupted her over and over again, leaning into the microphone and saying “wrong” like a cranky two-year-old, Hillary maintained composure and always managed to get her point across, even when you could barely hear her over Trump’s whining. While Trump was speaking, instead of sighing or making faces as he did while she was speaking, she would angle her body towards him to demonstrate her engagement and smile when he said something ridiculous. Her smile not only showed the audience that she does have stamina and can handle ignorance and stupidity with grace for one and half hours, but it also let viewers know that she had something to say, even when she didn’t get the chance to respond.
Aside from her body language, Hillary was prepared and padded her answers with logos and just enough pathos, while Donald Trump spewed ethos to cover up the fact that he didn’t have any facts prepared. At one point when asked a question, Trump rambled for over two minutes and topped it off by saying, “I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.” Not only is that not an answer to any kind of question about his policies, but it isn’t even a good use of ethos. What does “having a winning temperament” even entail? One of the debate moments that showed Hillary’s use of logos and pathos was when she brought up Trump’s mistreatment of his lower class workers (which was barely even logos until he literally OWNED UP TO IT like it wasn’t a big deal in his response) and then adding some pathos by mentioning that her late father was a worker so she had even less tolerance for that kind of behavior.
Overall, this debate had an unusual amount of casualness compared to how seriously Presidential debates have been taken in the past. People saying that Hillary came off as stiff and robotic should consider that she just looked this way compared to Trump, who was under-prepared and rude. If you compare Hillary’s more reserved approach to candidates in past debates, it becomes clear that she is just following regular debate procedure. Being respectful and reserved, and trying to maintain the integrity of the debate should not be seen as being self-important or distant. ...And being rude, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, having an incredibly frightening amount of aggression, etc. shouldn’t be considered being “authentic” or “real” because it is disgusting.
I think you did a really great job stating what happened at the debate while putting in some of your own views- the last sentence is awesome
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really great job stating what happened at the debate while putting in some of your own views- the last sentence is awesome
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your points about they way Hillary presented herself. I think that's just as an important factor as anything. Great job, you had a very strong argument.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you about how this debate seemed unusually casual compared to debates in the past, with the audience cheering and all the interruptions. I especially agree with your last paragraph, and I think you make a really good point about how Trump being rude shouldn't be seen as being "real," and i'm glad you talked about that, because I did not really think about that until now.
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