The Race to the White House: The First Presidential Debate
As we get closer to the countdown of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the debates are crucial. On Monday, September 26, 2016, millions of people across the world, tuned in to watch the first debate between Hillary Clinton (the Democratic Presidential Nominee) and Donald Trump (the Republican Presidential Nominee). The moderator for this debate was Lester Holt from NBC. The three main themes of this debate were: ‘Securing America,’
‘Achieving Prosperity,’ and ‘America’s Direction’. I was keen to hear both the candidates’ points of view on the topics of ‘Securing America’ and ‘Achieving Prosperity’.
The first point that I noticed during the course of the debate was that, both candidates maintained a good tone, and had great voice modulation. This is an important quality for a good debater to get your point across; you could say the same sentence in two different tones and it can be perceived completely differently! Donald Trump’s use of simple language and the notion of not letting jobs leave our country, can be appealing to the average American who likes to work hard and earn a decent living. Hillary Clinton brought up the topic of gun control and it is a topic that needs to be addressed with so many deaths and violence from the misuse of guns. She spoke about the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of risky people, such as those persons on the No-Fly List. Donald Trump, who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), agreed with her statement.
During the debate, Donald Trump said, “We cannot be the policemen of the world,” and I totally agree with him. I believe that we should first get our country’s matters in order before getting involved with other country’s issues. I think that overall, both candidates got their points across in a fair manner, and that it was a tie (one person didn’t win). But, it is also important to note that this is only the first debate between the candidates, and that the undecided voters may only be able to finalize their choice after the upcoming debates. It was interesting to watch the first presidential debate for the upcoming election and reflect upon it.
